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02.12.2013 Feature Article

Teacher Charity ‘Drain-Death’: Is It Not Time To Develop An Education Social Work Strategic Intervention Framework?

Teacher Charity Drain-Death:  Is It Not Time To Develop An Education Social Work Strategic Intervention Framework?
02.12.2013 LISTEN

The NEW AGENDA, sometime in late June this year, in its article ''what is social work and who is a social worker', observed that social work is the professional act of intervening in the life of society's victims of disadvantage, oppression, discrimination, marginalisation and vulnerability.

In this way social work intervention seeks to address the imbalance of the victim's experiences and offer them the relevant, appropriate, adequate assistance and support, in the quest to empower the victim and place him/her at a position to determine their own future and hopefully , attain the state of self-worth, self-value and self-confidence.

No doubt in cases of crime or anti social behaviour and or disputes, the victim becomes adequately and well informed through appropriate professional mediation with the perpetrator, in achieving a closure. Thus social work is the task undertaken by a trained and qualified professional with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those in need of help, assistance and support.

Child abuse, may be conceptualized as the act and or the incident of power in-balance in a given specific relationship or the lack of due care and attention that has the prospect of leading to injury of any kind suffered by a child or the exposure of the child to any potential risks of significant harm and or danger.

The phenomenon , its nature , character and the extent of its impact on the general well-being of children, have occasioned the emphasis on the development of strategic mechanisms for professional responses to safeguarding and protecting children in need globally. Practice and research evidence suggests child abuse as incorporating neglect ( lack of or failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter etc) physical abuse (hitting, beating ,scalding ,burning ,shaking ,whipping etc), emotional /psychological abuse ( bullying , intimidation ,name calling) and sexual abuse ( inappropriate touching, penetration, exposure to pornographic materials ).

For the purposes of this discourse, the emphasis will give consideration to the fall out or the consequences of child physical abuse. In general terms, the supervision and management of children in educational settings, involve much more than impacting information and knowledge or teaching, as it also encompasses the framework for care ,discipline and control , which can adequately be referred to as behaviour management .

Thus the relevant, appropriate and efficient supervision of children in the confines of schools entails a careful blend and or a balance of care, discipline and control with the teaching if an appreciable level of safeguard and protection is to be achieved to meet the varied needs of school children.

Admittedly, whereas parents or domestic carers are but the primary agents of the socialisation of children, the role played by such secondary agents such as schools, churches/mosques and the community cannot in any way be down played or ignored. For example children are much more likely to spend more time at schools with their teachers than with their parents/ carers at home.

This should explain the significant roles teachers may play in the lives of children in shaping their personality, behaviour, attitudes, and character and for the development of their social moral values. Evidently, teachers perform a mixture of roles which includes that of being an 'in locus parentis'-'in- place of -parents' at schools, educator, mass communicator, counsellor, advisor, mediator, a be-friender, a health practitioner-nurse, just to mention but a few, which require a great deal of acceptable social moral values and standards, inter-personal knowledge, skills and those attributes the bible for example recognises as the fruits of the holy spirit such as patience, love, joy, long-suffering etc.

Supervising and managing the behaviour, character and attitudes of very young children as infants can be really challenging and a daunting chore and or responsibility, which has the potentials of impacting extreme and significant stress on parents or care givers of any description , who may themselves be struggling to cope with their own anxieties or specific perceived needs.

It is in recognition of this social dynamics that such little children, as toddlers and infants , in my considered opinion and professional experience should not be left in the care ,management and supervision of relatively immature, inexperienced care-givers or providers, who may be acting as 'in locus parentis' in care homes or school setting or environment.

The practice evidence is that these care givers are less likely to cope with the rather huge demands and stress that may be occasioned by the escapades, mischief , boundary testing and the general naughtiness of these client group adequately and appropriately without maximum efficient and effective oversight supervision. It is my view that no matter how much passion, interest, desire , ambition and the professional academic excellence of any young 22 year old teacher, who may be emotionally immature and inexperienced, the challenges of impacting secular knowledge within the framework of efficient and adequate supervision, discipline and control ,in the midst of provocative and challenging behaviour, can no doubt be a rather tall order.

I recall what may present as an educational policy and practice in the mid-fifties, when as an infant recollect with much nostalgia my kindergarten teacher being a relatively emotionally matured and stable female, who was a parent of two children at that time. Interestingly, it was the same female teacher who supervised., managed and provided academic support, assistance ,discipline and control to one of my daughters in the early nineties with her usual sense of maturity, rich experience ,tact and strategic approach to teaching, supervision, discipline and control. Indeed this was the practice approach that characterised educational service provision and delivery by this time.

Perhaps what may have changed in this seemingly contemporary time is the shortages of this calibre of teachers in particular, coupled with the rather unattractiveness of undertaking teaching in the 'rural' communities, with the negative result of throwing such younger ,inexperienced and emotionally immature ones into the fray. If the unfortunate experience of the unnecessarily cold death of teacher Charity is to be of any meaningful lesson to us, my considered professional opinion would be for the educational authorities and indeed government to rethink the supervision, management and teaching at our nurseries, kindergartens and lower primary classes by relatively young, emotionally ,psychologically, inexperienced and immature personnel, unless it has to be a last resort, where these teachers must benefit from professionally experienced over-sight supervision.

Although it may seem difficult to appreciate the circumstances of effecting the seeming 'discipline and control' to the infant-child by teacher Charity ,one thing that can be acknowledged and worth a measurable level of appreciation, is her noticeable remorse and the willingness at taking full responsibility for the consequences of her error of judgement on the realisation of her err. This would reasonably explain her readiness to undertake what we now know to be a 'costly last journey', of a home-visit to make amends for her actions, renders an unqualified apology to her 'victim 'the parents and indeed the family.

This actions teacher Charity undertook albeit without a tacit professional assistance and support of a qualified professional mediator or counsellor, as should normally be the practice under such challenging and difficult circumstances within a defined statutory framework and arrangement. This raises my professional concerns about the systemic and institutional failure of our education service delivery and provision system that has no professional appreciation and understanding of the valuable roles education social work framework provides in the supervision, management and behaviour management in educational institutions as far as anti-social behaviour, negative character and attitudes will always be demonstrated by pupils and students , which will require professional intervention to manage them efficiently and effectively as such .

This framework will have assisted teacher Charity to have referred her 'victim' for a professional 'pep talk' and or counselling about any negative tendencies of behaviour to an education social worker on site without having to be directly involved in effecting the type of discipline and control she was reported to have been involved with as operates in those jurisdictions which value social work practice within education environment.

Additionally, the education social worker by virtue of his/her job description and professional training and practice, would have intervened in making those arrangements for a restorative justice service delivery or a victim-offender conferencing with both teacher Charity and the parents or family of her pupil-victim.

This would have provided teacher Charity the unique and appropriate opportunity to express her remorse and make any apology in a safer environment, without having to be that exposed to the misplaced anger, malice and premeditation of the victim's parents and family on that occasion, given any such feelings would have been well and adequately managed by the education social worker in a professional manner so as to avoid or minimise any potential risks to the safety of participants in the mediation process, particularly in ensuring and promoting the welfare and safety of teacher Charity within health and safety standards of code of professional practice.

The mediation or restorative justice paradigm, would have sought to address whatever concerns the pupil and her parents and the entire family may genuinely have about the punishment meted out to their child, offer them the opportunity to explain how teacher Charity's actions might have affected their child and themselves, explore their feelings and exact explanations and any meaningful apology from teacher Charity as might be appropriate, with the assurance that such an incident will not and never happen again and with any reparation to be considered if necessary on the occasion .

This would be aimed at minimising any potential act of retribution on the part of the pupil's family towards teacher Charity, with the considered hope of reaching a closure to the event. Research practice evidence will suggest that this is the best approach and much more rewarding way to restore and balance the relationship between the pupil ( and family ) and teacher which had been damaged.

This has the prospect of achieving peace , harmony , joy and oneness between the two 'feuding 'group ,the school authorities and the community rather than the retributive approach that had resulted in a needless loss of an exuberant life full of hope, dreams and aspirations. In its trail, there will no doubt be a divided community in bereavement, the consequences of which can be far reaching.

Firstly, the pupil will remain traumatised and suffer emotional and psychological stress and damage for a timeless period and same will be the experiences of his classmates and indeed the entire school community, who have lost a 'jolly' good teacher because of him and the reprehensible actions of his family. Besides the family risks being isolated if not stigmatised and treated with scorn and name calling, which has the potential of dire social, emotional and psychological consequences for them, not to talk of the potential prosecution and custodial terms that may await the family members who chased life out of teacher Charity into a drain. ln all these circumstances, all players in the 'drama' will require heavy doses of bereavement counselling at all fronts, if some semblance of sanity is to be realised, a costly enterprise for a moment of indiscretion and lack of judgement.

In any case, a pragmatic and prudent intervention approach will require a holistic, systemic and institutional framework that is forward looking in valuing education social work intervention and practice in Ghana. This may be a befitting legacy in the memory of ''a fair lady with a chalk '', a Ghanaian rose, who walked the community of Nsuta and died in action for the work she loves best-teaching and preparing children to grow and take their places of responsibility in society .May the soul of teacher Charity, rest in perfect peace of the grand creator Jehovah God. May the same peace like a river flow in the Nsuta community at large when the dust settles.


The author is a social care and offender management and rehabilitation consultant, an ardent penal reform advocate and the operations director of OMRO. For further details contact [email protected]/0248416287.

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