Mrs. Akua Tutu, Proprietress of Lotus Education Center
In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interacting with an extraordinary individual who expressed her outstanding abilities through the art of instruction. She is a teacher.
She has dedicated her entire life to teaching from the tender age of 19, at an age most kids these days have no clue what they want to do with their lives. She ended up inspiring some of these kids to achieve what they felt was impossible in their capacity, one of her mantras being, ‘….you can do whatever you put your mind to, nothing’s impossible’.
“The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher”
World Teachers Day 2018 Theme
Whereas given her exceptional IQ (like some of the students she has taught) she could have chosen a profession that would have paid her a salary worthy of her abilities yet she chose to serve the Universe molding future leaders. The leaders of tomorrow, some of our leaders you see today.
I’ve watched children that have been written off as failures pass through her hands becoming exemplary academics. At her appointment as a maths teacher, I’ve witnessed failing children; children that proclaimed themselves useless at mathematics in later years become accountants and bankers. I personally never thought that was possible. Later in their college years, they would return to Ghana and visit her specifically at her domain in Ghana International School excited to tell her about how amazing maths was and how well they were doing as if they had discovered some sort of superpower they never knew existed. SHE KNEW!!
I was told when I was growing up, ‘you’re either science or arts’. The meaning being, you are either science inclined or arts inclined. If you are one you cannot be the other. This may come from the left-brain/right-brain theory perhaps. As a result, I’ve seen many brilliant individuals receive a restaurant bill and immediately remove their calculators (phones these days) with the excuse, ‘… I’m horrible with numbers’, basically to escape the embarrassment from self-deprecation (because no one is checking for a maths wiz at a dinner table). On acquainting myself with such an individual over a period of time I would come to learn that it was A TEACHER that killed their love for mathematics and made he/she feel like they were shit at maths and would always be shit. Forget money, that’s real power.
Mme Tutu teaching at her school, Lotus Education Center
Did you know that if you get a diploma degree you do as much work as someone that got a bachelor’s degree but your achievement is pretty much unrecognized in most corporate job circles (well these days you need a master to be competitive)? You’re better off training to be a plumber. Mrs. Tutu by the age of 19 finished teacher’s training college and 10 years later went on to get her diploma in Home Economics at the University of Ghana. Hard work but a useless degree for someone with any ambition. This would motivate her in later years approaching retirement to further pursue education.
She once told me a story about an exceptionally intelligent little girl from a humble background who was born and raised in Mampong, Ashanti. At the age of 11, she traveled alone to Cape Coast on the invitation of one of the top secondary schools (high school) to interview for a position in form 1 (8th grade, junior high). She was the talk of the town being the only one of her classmates to receive this opportunity and traveled by herself because her family thought it was a waste of her time. In their opinion, there was no way she would gain enrollment to such a prestigious institution given her background. Determined to succeed but terrified, having never journeyed beyond the borders of the town before, an 11-year-old Akua set off in faith to create a brighter future for herself on her own. Long story short, extremely impressed and shocked that this minuscule young girl believed in herself enough to embark on a journey of such magnitude unaccompanied by an adult for this appointment, the administration not only gave her a position in the institution but included a partial scholarship in addition.
On returning home with the mind-blowing news, her family decided it was a waste of money to send her to this school because she was just a girl and educating her to that extent would never reap any benefit to them. Women were meant to marry wealthy men and have children. With a dream shattered, that was Mrs. Tutu’s first encounter with disappointment and the harsh reality of a world plagued by ignorance and discrimination.
In the course of a career spanning 40 years of teaching experience internationally in countries like America and locally, towards the end it appeared the story of the disappointed 11-year-old child was yet to repeat itself. She was refused on two occasions a well-deserved promotion in one of the most esteemed educational institutions in Ghana. It didn’t matter that she had served diligently not to mention selflessly every day of her employ for nearly 20 years. I’m not sure if she ever missed a school day. As a result, at the age of 50 she went back to school to get her bachelor degree (combined honours in history and psychology) with mates younger than her children and subsequently against all odds with little encouragement from her peers and friends (because they did not see the need for a woman approaching retirement to waste her time) she got her masters in History.
In 2012, Ghana International School, the same institution that refused her promotion request twice awarded her the Best Teacher honor.
Today, she is retired. A life dedicated to building the world’s future, it could not end there. She has started her own school, Lotus Education Centre, where the work of empowering our future leaders continues. She has established an after-school educational program with a track record that boasts boosting even failing students into the top percentile of the achievers in their year groups as well as a preschool.
In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interacting with an extraordinary individual who expressed her outstanding abilities through the art of instruction. She is a teacher.
In her selfless pursuit to educate and motivate the children that have passed through her classrooms to be better than what in the past the media has painted of the average African and people of African descent, Mrs. Tutu has helped groom some of the finest talent and intellects to grace this planet. I speak from authority, I speak from experience because…. She has been a mother to me. My Principle Teacher.
It took two towers to crumble before firemen were hailed as heroes. Without the efforts of some teachers, the fireman would probably not exist let alone be efficient at their job. Today on World Teacher’s Day and every day from this moment, let’s celebrate the true heroes of our society who have gone unrecognized, underpaid and taken for granted. If this disregard continues, eventually the building blocks of our communities, the future, our children, will be in jeopardy. It shouldn’t take a disaster to learn from the past.
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