Reign of terror at Santa Maria School Complex

At a time the whole nation is going through a healing process to reconcile victims of injustices and their perpetrators, the proprietress of the Santa Maria School Complex at Santa Maria, a suburb of Accra, Madam V. D. Foli, has converted her school into a convent where pregnancy for a female teacher means termination of her contract.

Investigations conducted by this paper have revealed that since the establishment of the school all teachers have been living in constant terror of the proprietress, while the pregnant ones have been at the receiving end.

They have had their contracts terminated by the proprietress upon learning of their pregnancy.

Chronicle has also gathered that some of these poorly-paid female teachers, who are invariably not given compensation when they are dismissed and a few of them have ended up giving birth prematurely out of shock.

But when contacted for her comment, Madam Foli stood her ground that she would not talk to this reporter. This she said in the presence of her headmaster.

Madam Foli: "I will not talk to you . In fact who are the girls? Name them."

Chronicle: "They are Doris Anku, Mrs. Georgina Andoh, Rose Nkrumah, and Juliet Acquah."

Madam Foli: "These girls left this place years ago, it is Juliet who left here last month and I believe she has formed this group to go to Chronicle to write bad things about me. These girls are very ungrateful," she said, fuming.

Chronicle: "Madam it will be in your own interest if you exercise some restraint and give your version of the story."

Madam Foli: "No! I said I am not going to talk to you. So you are going around sniffing for news. In fact who told you?"

Chronicle: "Well it was an anonymous caller and the editor sent me to cross check the information."

Madam Foli: "Go and tell the editor to come with them and then we can sit down and talk but I will not talk to you."

She continued: "For Andoh it was the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that took the decision. And for Juliet, she sent in a late application for maternity leave and I said, before you go on leave you should at least apply three months early to enable me find a replacement, but she didn't so, so she was dismissed.

"This girl eh eh Rose when I heard that she was pregnant I called her and asked her and she denied it. And when it came out I called her and she was told to leave."

Chronicle: "So was she given .?"

Madam Foli: "I say I will not talk to you, in fact my leg is hurting and I am on my way to the hospital."

That ended the Chronicle's meeting with Madam Foli on Wednesday, this week.

In October, last year, one of the female teachers, Rose Nkrumah, who had served the school for almost ten years had her contract terminated by the proprietress.

She ended up giving birth prematurely following the shock she experienced as a result of the termination of her ten years' service to the school without compensation.

This was after an attempted plea by the teacher to convince Madam Foli to reconsider her decision had failed.

According to sources, Rose's plea was motivated by the fact that looking at the state of her pregnancy at the time, it was difficult for her to get a new job.

Before then, Doris Anku and Georgina Andoh, a secretary and a teacher respectively were thrown out of the school under a similar circumstance.

Georgina, the teacher, Chronicle learnt collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where she was resuscitated.

After that incident she bled for sometime before her time was due.

The latest victim is Juliet Acquah, a cashier, whose nine years marriage with the school came to an abrupt end on February 19, last month, when she applied for a maternity leave.