Banning Students From Household Chores In Schools: The GES Must Stop Shifting Its Administrative Burdens Onto Teachers

It is becoming an alarming and unfortunate trend: whenever the Ghana Education Service (GES) finds itself grappling with administrative challenges, the default solution seems to be shifting the burden onto teachers—making an already difficult job even worse. This is a populist and short‑sighted move that threatens to undermine the very fabric of our educational system. Under both the NDC and the NPP, the authorities of the GES have been clothed with powers that allow them to distance themselves from actions that negatively affect our schools. Yet, always, it is the teacher who suffers.

The latest discourse surrounding student discipline at Obuasi Senior High Technical School is a prime example. By proposing measures that bar students from performing chores at school, the GES is not only weakening student discipline but also incapacitating teachers’ ability to instill responsibility. The idea is wholly absurd and poorly thought through.

Consider the reality of the Ghanaian home. Children are expected to perform household chores. It is a fundamental part of their upbringing—teaching responsibility, humility, and the value of contributing to a community. So why the sudden move to bar them from doing the same at school?

Teachers are legally and socially recognized as parent substitutes. They take over the responsibility of parents during school hours, which includes instilling discipline and character. Why, then, are we actively stripping them of that role? Are teachers now expected to sit back and watch while a child does whatever he or she pleases, without consequence or responsibility? This approach is a recipe for chaos.

Critics of corporal punishment or strict discipline often point to the few “miscreant” teachers who abuse their power. But by that logic, we should abolish parenthood entirely because there are instances where parents abuse their own children. Do we say that because some parents commit heinous acts, all parents should lose the responsibility of raising their children? Of course not. We punish the deviant individual, not the entire institution.

The GES’s approach is a dangerous overreaction. It attempts to solve administrative problems by stripping teachers of their authority and students of their responsibilities. A school without discipline is merely a playground. We must not allow bureaucracy to destroy the teacher’s ability to mold the next generation.

The idea by the GES is wholly absurd and unthought‑through. It is time to rethink this populist strategy and restore the dignity and authority of the teacher.

Yentik Gariba
Columnist, Modernghana.com
Political Commentator, North East, Nalerigu
([email protected])