Teaching Strike: A Profession Transcending The Classroom

Just as the All African Games was ongoing, schools under Ghana Education Service (GES) too had their athletics competition. As compared to the continental competition, games like swimming, arm-wresting, boxing, wrestling and a few other games were not part of the pre-tertiary games. I saw great talents in the Ashanti and it's my hope that the Ghanaian system do not make their talents go waste. Teachers, whether they know or love sports or not, exhibited the highest forms of motivation to the kids who normally see them as mentors and mini heroes.

The Ghanaian teacher, indeed, builds the nation like no other yet they are the only professionals that have consistently been going on strike for simple things like promotion issues, salary increment, and other allowance like deprived area allowance, transfer grants, etc.

Do you know that an average teacher feeds at least two students a day?

"Sir/Madam, I have not eaten. My mother or father did not give me money" goes beyond a cliché. Teachers hear this at least three days in a week.

"Student/pupil, buy beans 8 Cedis and plantains 5 Cedis. Tell the woman to give you plenty gari and mention my name so that she gives me plenty. If the gari is small, buy an extra gari of 1 Cedi. Buy two pure water of 1 Cedis and keep the 5 Cedis change and buy something to eat," says the teacher when he sends the kids to buy some food for him or her.

When the student brings the food and it's small as compared to anticipated size, the teacher asks the kid whether his or her name was mentioned well or whether the food vendor herself was not there.

Some generous teachers who notice a student is intentionally passing and watching him or her eat will intentionally reserve some of the food for the learner. Other teachers whose superstition emanated from hardship will accuse the hungry students of watching the eat of witchcraft or attempting to use evil eyes to conjure something poisonous in the food for teacher to eat for something bad to happen. Woe betides the student, should the teacher cough or get choked.

Even though the message on the call for industrial action got to some earlier, others had theirs late due to the digital "dumsor" or the instability of Internet Service. Six out of 16 concerns raised by the leadership of teacher unions were about the Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Deprived Area Allowance, Teaching/ Assessment Allowance, Transport/ Commuting Allowance and Utility Subsidy. Sometimes, one seems to ask why governments have failed to address teachers' concerns by a larger percentage despite the consistency of job actions by all teacher unions. It's not as if teachers are asking what other workers on government payroll do not already have.

Out of the six points raised, it's only the Continuous Professional Development Allowance that the teacher enjoys. Though structured to be coming monthly but does not, the CPD allowance comes once a year in the month of November in accumulation for the whole year. The monthly allowance is not more than 700,000 Old Ghana Cedis for teachers who have not yet attained the full professional status.

Unlike the tertiary institutions that are located at fully developed communities, some pre-tertiary institutions at the basic level are located at deprived areas. Schools under trees should ring a bell to you when you hear of deprived areas. A single teacher combining more than one class for a lesson, schools in weak muddy buildings, schools in communities with poor network for calls and internet for educational videos to facilitate teaching and learning are among the plethora of problems teachers face in deprived areas. This therefore means that pleading for deprived area allowance is in the right direction.

Transport or Commuting Allowance emanates from the fact that due to lack of basic amenities or suitable accomodations drive teachers far away from school communities to bigger towns and cities, hence a burden on their purse or wallet.

Teaching or Assessment Allowance puts the ordinary teacher in a convenient position to facilitate lessons to derive the best teaching and learning outcomes. One needs no soothsayer to talk about Utility Subsidy: the current increment of utility tariffs is self explanatory.

It is an open secret that no teacher likes staying away from their schools, classrooms or students. The teacher finds in schools all intrinsic motivation, escapism from pressure and stress from home and family as well as divine fulfillment in the choice of profession. Realistically, the teacher leaves all his problems and puts on his or her cape to be the superhero the learner looks up to for simple solutions, advice and salvation. This is probably one of the reasons that there's the fallacious adage that "The teacher's reward is in heaven." Who went to heaven and came back to tell us this?

The average teacher has at least two undergraduate degrees or certificates relating to his or her profession. The above average has about three undergraduate certificates with a postgraduate certificate or master's degree. This means that teachers invests in themselves to be on top of their professional and academic competence. Most teachers begin their profession with a diploma, then later further education with a degree. They later get another degree in a specialized area or subject. Teacher who wants to fulfill career or promotional requirements do a master's degree or two. There's also those teacher who are topping up the master's degree from Master of Education , Arts or Science to Master of Philosophy with the hope of someday leaving the pre- tertiary levels of teaching to full tertiary or undergraduate education at the universities or colleges of education. There are a few who have an extra technical postgraduate education in other areas hoping to switch to high paying jobs when the opportunity presents itself. This means that the Ghanaian teacher is one of the most highly educated professionals in the country currently but with no financial comfort to show for the magnitude of time and resources invested in furthering their education.

I am not in support of strikes not because I believe in rumours that our leaders use it as a medium of accumulating personal or selfish gains by the brown envelopes principle. However, I think the demands, when met, will bring some level of comfort and respect for teachers. This is something that has been overlooked by governments before this current administration.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed Ghanaians who had been underrating the importance of the teaching profession; parents literally wanted their own children to stay away from them and implored government to cut the lockdown short and eventually reopen schools for the kids to go the place professionals are trained to handle and nurture children in ways they know best.

I am of the view that the teaching profession, particularly at the pre- tertiary level transcends the classroom and schools. Most of the athletes whose feat we are all enjoying at the All African Games had their strong foundational preparations at the school- just a few steps outside the classrooms and into the pitches and communities where teachers sweat and strained their voices in motivating and constructively criticizing student-athletes. The teachers brought the very best in the student (or future athletes) in terms of sporting talents in the fields of track, javelin, short put, high jump, soccer, triple jump, etc. Teachers have been doing these over the years empty handed. Let's not keep them away from the schools for far too long by imploring appropriate authorities satiate these few financial demands. It's not entirely different from the allowance other professionals on government payroll have been enjoying leaving the teachers behind.

By
Martin Elorm Dogbo
Bilingual Specialist in Communication, Education & Management

[email protected]