The Ghana Education Service has been known for taking Hasty decisions before realizing their irrelevance to the persons involved of which the Headmaster’s Sex tape saga was no exception.
The Ghana Education Service’s decision on the Headmaster in the Sex tape is nothing but an obvious Hasty Decision taken by the Education Service.
Though the headmaster’s actions may obviously not be one of good morals based on societal values, the Education Service’s decision on the matter could be described as none but a Hasty Decision to satisfy public Speculations.
GES HASTY DECISIONS
The Ghana Education Service in a Press Statement issued on January 23,2018.,the Education Service made the Following Pronouncement :
1. The headmaster has been relieved of his post
2. Directorate has set up a two member committee to probe into the matter
3. The headmaster is to meet the disciplinary committee for appropriate disciplinary actions.
These three distinct decisions do not in any way correlate to make a positive judgement.
Making reference to Johnson Amenuveve Buamah,a teacher at Shai-Osudoku District in Dodowa’S article on similar matter, a lot is much needed to be done at the management level of the Ghana Education Service.
He writes….
“I read this over and over again as the recommendation for the way forward and I ask “IS THE WELFARE AND WELLBEING OF PUPILS ( IN THIS CASE, THE GIRL) NOT A CONCERN TO GES
AND IS THE HEADTEACHER AND OUTCAST THAT DOESN’T DESERVE OUR LOVE AND EMPATHY?
By the posture of GES, relieving the head of his duty amounts to him been found guilty hence the punishment. You sack the headmaster. What should he meet a certain committee for and for what purpose? In your release, you stated you engaged all the parties, the community, the girl, the headmaster and the school? So what again are you going to probe into ? The cost of the kitchen stool ? Or why the choice of a kitchen stool ?
So what is the way forward for the girl. This is a video that has gone viral. The girl is a symbol of teasing, mockery, stigmatization and laughing stock among the young and old and her peers..
GES did not state whether they’ve secured the services of a guidance and counseling officer or a psychologist for her… We will all be looking on unconcerned. We will wake up to the sad news that the girl has committed suicide and that ends it.
I am highly disappointed in GES that among all the recommendations they thought of, only punitive measures was paramount to them and not correctional measures…
Have they (GES) taken it upon themselves to do follow-ups since then to find out if the girl is able to go to school and if she is psychological stable in class ? Is she going through any emotional disorders that needs immediate attention? Who is watching over her weird behaviors and movements?
What about the headmaster? Is he receiving any counseling and guidance? Is GES aware that the video is enough trauma to cause him to want to take his life and the hasty decisions of relieving him of his post, compounds the emotional instability he may be enduring?
Ghana Education Service should look at issues dispassionately and devoid of sentimental reactions to satisfy an insatiable society that is already looking mean upon the teaching profession and think of the welfare of their own no matter the circumstances. (Even criminals have rights)
Even if the head deserves the punishment melted out to him, adding human face and presenting it in a more human manner won’t cost GES a thing but save a soul….
I have opined in my previous article that the haste at which GES responds to this issues is just fantastic. At the speed of light… Less that 48 hours, the District Director of Asikuma-Odoben Brakwa and his PRO got to the community, and the school to commence investigation. Fantastic. And I congratulate them but report to them about lack of teaching and learning materials (teachers tables, desk, textbooks and even common chalk), you will never see them. They won’t even come to the school to ascertain the veracity of the complaints. Is our society not aligned to bad news for prompt actions? Is the educational set-up itself not ready to energize actions into investigating bad conduct and punish same? How many times are teachers praised not even rewarded or awarded for good work ? But let teachers commit a minor crime, be it an oversight or negligence of duty, then you will know there is a supper power overseeing and moderating the teachers called GES. Anyway, the truth is bitter but someone must say it. No one will swallow it but will rather look for a way to punish you for speaking against the efficiencies that they superintend. But be it not afraid and I am not.
Some of us who have already begun yo break the silence of the night have found out that the call to speak is often a vocation of agony but we must speak. And we must rejoice for surely the marginalized and the afflicted, will realize that there are some voices of descent who will defile all odds and challenge the status quo hoping to make changes. The time has come when silence is no longer golden but a betrayal of good conscience.
I am a teacher. Professional teacher. Trained from Jasikan College of Education and University of Cape Coast. I am not pleading clemency for the head, but an adage, in my local ewe dialect have it that, “when a hawk carries your chick, you don’t stone it with an egg”…. We cannot allow two wrongs. We cannot use a mistake to right a mistake.
GES must act now. We cannot wait to sing had I know. Get guidance and counseling services for them. Transfer the head to a different region where he can reorganize himself and start life afresh. Organize an orientation for the students of the SHS the girl attends… They should be cautioned against stigmatization and educated on the effects of stigma. Teachers in the school should show the girl more love and make her feel more accepted….
One life, too many to lose….”
Source:EducationGhana.net