These Bad Teachers! GES Should Seriously Check Their Evil Deeds.

Several complaints are been e-mailed to me regarding the callousness of some teachers who are still bent on conducting extra-classes for money, and additionally engaging themselves in several evil practices. I am therefore compelled to revisit those issues, and thus simultaneously plead with the GES to react to stop those bad practices.

Even though during my professional teaching period of the early 1960s and early 70s, some of the bad deeds of some teachers, which are discussed below, were known, the general contention now is that such practices have been greatly intensified these days, with some very disturbing additionals, all of which are tending to mire the image of a profession which has been singularly described from olden times as 'noble'.

The first point is the amazing money consciousness which has gripped lots of teachers these days, inducing them to make money from the pupils they teach, through several devious and unprofessional means, sometimes with the backing or sanctions of the headteachers who are supposed to discourage such immoral collections of money.

Several teachers are now engaged in extra-classes work, from which they collect monies ranging from thirty to fifty pesewas a day from the poor pupils, all in the belief that the unfinished parts of the term's syllabus are being covered or some essential extra knowledge which will be good for their future national exams is being taught to these innocent pupils.

And this practice is going on in many Junior and Senior Secondary schools in the country; and in some cases, the extra-classes fever has caught on with primary schools! Good God! Everywhere, there is this extra-classes madness - either going on after the working day's normal classes, or on Saturdays or during the term's long vacation period! And this is prevalent in both public and private schools, especially in the metropolitan, urban or big towns. Nowadays, the contagion has even caught on with village schools where in some cases, instead of monies being charged, plantains and cocoyam or yam tubers are allegedly collected by the teachers! Is it a variant of 'village allowances' to these village teachers?

Some schools have officially included extra-classes charges in Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) dues, and some poor parents are obliged to 'vomit' such fees to those particular schools, or the poor school pupil will have to be dismissed from school until he pays that money! Often times, two teachers connive to hold extra classes. And if, say, five new Ghana cedis (or five thousand old cedis) is charged from each of the 40 pupils on every particular Saturday, the simple arithmetic is that ¢200 thousand old cedis is reaped every week to be shared by the two teachers, for the extra-classes held for only two hours! But in most cases, the extra-classes charges are higher around GH¢2.00 or ¢20,000 per child and such teachers enrich themselves thereby. For convenience sake, I shall be using the old thousand cedis for our arithmetic, pardon me for that!

Whilst the excuse of some urban teachers to the effect that those charges only go to meet their transport expenses may be a little pardonable, what about those who continue after the normal classes, teaching for extra two hours and charging each pupil three thousand cedis for each of the five normal school days. The mathematics here is that such a teacher gains ¢600,000 a week, and ¢2,400 a month from the 40 pupils. But are such charges justifiable - charges from mostly poor parents? One wonders why the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education can't form an Extra-classes Investigation Committee to probe into such goings-on that are financially hurting most parents.

During our time in the 60s and 70s, we also held extra-classes for middle school form-four pupils or secondary school form-five students or the final year sixth-formers and never charged them a pesewa because we considered it immoral to do so. Our extra-classes were organized from purely altruistic motives - just for the students to pass the exams, with some obtaining distinctions. Our monthly salaries as teachers were not all that sufficient, but we managed them, without our going the way of casting extra financial burden on parents or pupils. One therefore cannot understand this hyper money-consciousness of several modern-day teachers. And it's a pity most of these do not teach to prepare final year students for any upcoming external exams. They only do extra classes just for extra money ! The general idea that modern-day teachers are too demanding, or they like money too much is generating a stain on the noble teaching profession, and efforts should be made by the GES to correct it.

The other misdeeds of some teachers are the unnecessary intrusion of them into the harmless lifestyles of the pupils, and their laziness to mark exams papers to fill exams report sheets (or report cards) that should be sent to parents or guardians.

In regard to the first point, one wonders why some teachers turn away students who wear ordinary sandals to school, and ask them to put 'gamboo' shoes which are definitely costly?  Is the wearing of sandals now a thing of the past, a practice which is officially endorsed by the GES? Is it now outdated?  What is most quixotic is some teachers' predisposition to use a pair of scissors to make rough or wading cuts into the hair of pupils or students whose hair they suspect to be bushy.

This is not a mark of 'civilization' -to use scissors to make a rough cut into someone's hair.  This can only be done to a student who still retains an unkempt crop of hair, and who has persistently rejected a teacher's counseling to keep the hair tidy.  To grow bushy hair is neither a sin nor a criminal offence.  It is a matter of choice of a student.  The only essential here is that the hair must be combed and kept tidy.  There are now two types of hairstyles which are not ethically or morally acceptable to any decent society.  These are the 'rasta hairdo', and the 'prickly hairdo' (this last refers to a hairstyle which shows the hair to be hard -pointed and uncombed).  Both Rasta and prickly hairdos (dreadlocks) are signs of, excuse me to say, madness or insanity, because only mad people allow their hair to grow in that manner. Why should sane people copy mad people and call that imitation a 'fashion'. Fashion indeed!

A bushy hair which is well combed is a decent hairstyle, and a teacher who is well -mannered and urbane should rather admire it. Let me say pointblank that a grown hair is a spiritual asset. It has a spiritual strength and gives glory to the person who has it. The story of Samson in the Bible (Judges 16:1-22) is not for nothing: It is a parabolic demonstration of the spiritual truth that the hair gives both spiritual and material strength, and therefore those who grow bushy hair (which is combed and kept neat) have a spiritual and material strength unknown to many people. When Samson who had great spiritual and material strength said, 'If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man' (Judges 16:17(b)), he was referring to a spiritual truth.

Unfortunately, through some tricks Lady Delilah shave off the great Samson's hair; and lo, he became weak and thus succumbed to the attacks of his enemies. The Biblical story is not for the superstitious but for the wise, as it contains a spiritual truth about the hair.

God never gave a person a crop of hair for nothing.  He is a wise God. So if you think God made a mistake in creating your hair and you therefore shave it off, you weaken yourself spiritually. Thus one wonders why most men are shaving off the hair of their heads. It is a pity that some pastors have ignored the Bible's spiritual teachings only to shave off their hair completely.  The hair is a spiritual asset.  Thus teachers should not interfere with their students' bushy but well-combed hair. It is a bad attack on their students. This is unacceptable.

(To be continued next two weeks). Next week we shall take a critical look at the concerns issued by the recent Catholic Bishop Conference.

By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful