ARE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS TO BLAME FOR FAILURE OF STUDENTS?

The high school students failing in some core subjects has a lot of people talking. I have heard a lot of people who have no business talking on some platforms doing so in such bizarre ways and I marvel at their shamelessness and applaud the bravery with which they spew ‘horrifics’.
Madam Janet Nabla of the People’s National Party speaking on Onua TV is one such individual. The woman started by saying she would have dismissed all heads of senior high schools if she were the president. Thankfully she is not because people who can’t hedge when talking to a national audience need some education before they are given such opportunities. I wonder where she’d have had the ‘better’ replacements of those she’d have sacked.

Madam Nabla said teachers are responsible for teaching high schoolers “adult things”. While SOME teachers are culprits, there are many people in different vocations who also molest students and teach them such practices. Some come to high school with experiences some teachers don’t even have and proceed to act wayward, disrespecting all supervisors and authorities. They won’t do any punishment assigned and can’t be caned. What of those who engage in such with their colleague students?
Counseling doesn’t work on them and they can’t be easily sent home by authorities due to the rules of the Ghana Education Services. This is what people like Madam Nabla don’t know. Teachers are suffering but are doing the best they can. It takes one to know the intense pressures.

She again mentioned that her taxes contributed to bungalows occupied by teachers. This may be true but teachers also pay taxes. The pain in this is that, the bungalows are not free although they are currently financially free (still renovations cost money). Housemasters and mistresses occupy those bungalows. In schools with high population, you’re always being called to sign an exeat, called for the sickness of one child or another, students coming to homes at odd hours due to complaints from student thieves to basic squabbles and many more. I can say for a fact that no teacher with enough resources to rent will want to be a resident teacher unless they have passion for the job. If Health Prefects don’t help teachers send some students to hospitals, how can they divide themselves if six students fall ill at the same time or close intervals and get the time to go teach their lessons? But because some students failed, now all teachers are useless, truants and deserve to be insulted by people who can’t last a day in the profession.

Accusations were made on no supervision. I laughed a bit at this. Supervision is so keen in high schools that it has turned into a national issue. PLC is compulsory. There are officers coming around all the time to check teachers and how they teach (At where I teach at least) and Heads of Department go around each and every day during different periods to check for teacher absenteeism. Even assessment of students is national. So I can’t relate to those accusations.
Those who claim strict invigilation contributed to the high percentage of failure need to be examined for honesty. The school is not there to only teach book knowledge but attitudes need to also be shaped. If you want us to sit back as students look into books and phones to cheat, then there is no need for the education service to exist.
It is high time people stop blaming ALL teachers when something goes wrong. The work is not a lucrative venture but a service to God. These comments force a lot of people out of the profession and make it look like a paupers’ job, a job not worthy of respect. Let’s learn to talk and let the Unions of Education learn to protect the
Services’ Staff. Demeaning comments demoralize those working with all their might, hearts and souls. So let’s be mindful of our speeches. Commend those who are working, hedge your comments, acknowledge the difficulties and cracks in the system and make your comments make sense. If we all want a better Ghana, we need to start respecting teachers who own a chunk of the responsibility in raising the future leaders.
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © 4th December, 2025.