Rawlings condemns ‘sex-for-grade’ in universities

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has condemned cases of sexual harassment in universities.

Describing the practice as a humiliation against students, he said it was synonymous to breaking the moral fabric of society.

Addressing executives of the Ghana Journalists Association at his residence as part of the Association’s 70th-anniversary celebration, the former President said tertiary institutions must ensure transparency in their grading systems to help curb the sex for grade practice.

“We should not be taking human beings through such humiliation. I think it is bad and as corruptible as breaking the moral fabric of a society and nothing can be as bad as this. It is a shortcut towards destroying people’s lives. How can we ensure that this thing has as much transparency. If GIMPA can do it, there is no reason why other places cannot do the same,” Rawlings said.

The former president’s comments on the back of BBC Africa Eye’s ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary that captured some Ghanaian and Nigerian University lecturers in compromising positions with investigators who posed as lecturers to ascertain the veracity of many allegations of sexual harassment levelled by some former University students against some lecturers.

Two lecturers at the University of Ghana, Dr. Paul Butakor and Professor Ransford Gyampo, who were featured in the documentary, have been interdiction following the release of the video.

The University of Ghana has subsequently constituted a special committee to investigate the lecturers and access to the video against the allegations leveled against them.

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