The drowning of about 9 school kids in the Oti River after returning from the headteacher’s rice farm is sorrowful but avoidable. This tragedy is a clear cause of negligence and disrespect for laid down rules and is indefensible. The argument that it is an act of God not negligence is regrettable.
Teachers owe students the duty of care, rather than imposing their influence and authority over the school kids for cheap labor. Curricula should be rooted in law and free from innuendos.
The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Article 32 of same addressed child labor, as “The right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”
In Ghana, one wonders if trained teachers get their motivation to teach through exploiting school kids on their farms and homes. It is no secret that students are made to labor on teachers’ farms and homes which is okay in our society. It is a nuisance that is eating into the fabrics of accepted standards. We glorify evil at the expense of the sufferer.
Ghana is confronted with the situation of dire systemic failures. The Ghana Education Service (GES), mandated by law to train and employ teachers is as well a sinking ship in this regard. If all hope is lost in every state institution, it cannot be GES. Because of its overly important role to lead the way in the affairs of teaching and learning.
We have a common canker. ‘Weak institutions’, which we believe can see a positive change starting from our schools where formal training is sourced. The same is false. Teachers have the oversight responsibility of educating students on professional work etiquette, patriotism, and respect for rules, but choose to trade in the opposite. In many instances, teachers are culprits in breaking the law. They don’t practice what they teach and is unexampled.
Teachers as role models only delight in modeling bad behavior which is not checked or punished by authority. Progress is hindered when teachers freely break the law, who should be the professionals to instill discipline?
School kids doing teachers’ household chores and laboring on farms, is popular. Students spend valuable contact hours doing teachers bidding on their farms, homes, or elsewhere for the teacher’s economic gain. Fetching water, doing laundry for the teacher’s household, carrying bamboo and bricks, and cooking are some of the things we did.
The death of some school kids at Saboba this week begs the question of whether or not this is the first time a school kid got injured or died in the process of laboring in the teachers’ space outside of the classroom. Has the Teacher’s Code of Conduct been functional? What level of punishment is meted out to these teacher-culprits? The laws must bite to serve as a deterrent.
Sexual abuse by some of our teachers is common knowledge. Few of the victims speak up for truth and justice. The very opinionated school girls who want to point fingers at the rot are repudiated. Sometimes teachers will ask students out of class just because they didn’t show up on his farm. They are severely punished or hated for not engaging in illegality.
At times, the poor kid is marked low in class assignments or exams. Some students are rewarded with high exam marks as per their output on the teacher’s farm or at home. Academic efforts are not rewarded but cheap labor is. The academic environment engages in all of that against the acceptable norms.
All these happen under the watch of GES. Someone is paid to supervise teachers’ conduct but again it’s a neglected duty. Who cares! In some cases, there are no or inadequate logistics to carry out this duty. Oh, and little motivation from the employer and other stakeholders.
The effects are critical and cyclical. The consequences are borne by the vulnerable students and parents. The effects are unending deaths just as occurred in Saboba in the Oti region. The effects are poor performance in our schools. Unruly teachers are put in charge to groom our future leaders and this is not frowned upon but normalized.
Leadership can up the games to stop the normalized child labor in our schools. Are the leaders taking advantage of positive deviance by keeping eyes on the world around us? There is a paradigm shift and we must adapt as a people.
Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) cannot sit aloof. They can’t look on for their children to be used and abused. Teachers in the hinterland especially should unlearn the habit of exploiting students on their farms and homes.
All these we need, all these we demand. Things must improve. Our school kids cannot continue to be farm workers. Nor should they continue to be housemaids doing domestic service.
Enough of the normalized rot. To put this in proper perspective, “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.” (Anonymous). #FixTheRot@GES