The GES must stop shifting its administrative burdens onto teachers

It is becoming an alarming and unfortunate trend: whenever the Ghana Education Service (GES) finds itself embattled with administrative challenges, the default solution seems to be to shift the burden onto teachers, making an already difficult job even more challenging. This is a populist and short-sighted move that threatens to undermine the very fabric of our educational system. Under both the NDC and the NPP, the authorities of the Ghana Education Service have been clothed with powers to take decisions to distance them from being complicit in actions that affect our educational system. Always, it is the teacher!

The latest discourse surrounding student discipline at Obuasi Senior High Technical School is a prime example. By proposing measures that bar students from performing chores at school, the GES is not only weakening student discipline but also incapacitating teachers' ability to instil discipline. The idea is wholly absurd and unthought-through.

Let us consider the reality of the Ghanaian home. Back at home, children are expected to perform household chores. It is a fundamental part of their upbringing, teaching them responsibility, humility, and the value of contributing to a community. So why the sudden move to bar them from doing the same at school?

Teachers are legally and socially recognised as parent substitutes. They take over the responsibility of parents during school hours, which includes instilling discipline and character. Why, then, are we actively taking away that role? Are we to sit back and watch while a child does whatever he or she pleases, without consequence or responsibility? This approach is a recipe for chaos.

Critics of corporal punishment or strict discipline often point to the few “miscreant” teachers who abuse their power. But by that logic, we should abolish parenthood entirely because there are instances where parents abuse their own wards. Do we say that because some parents sleep with their own children, all parents should lose the responsibility of taking care of their children? Of course not. We punish the deviant individual, not the entire institution.

The GES’s approach is a dangerous overreaction. It is a move that seeks to solve administrative problems by stripping teachers of their authority and students of their responsibilities. It is time the GES realised that a school without discipline is merely a playground. We must not allow bureaucracy to destroy teachers' ability to mould the next generation.

The idea by the GES is wholly absurd and unthought-through. It is time to rethink this populist strategy and restore the dignity and authority of the teacher.