Africa-Press – Ghana. Some teachers sexually harass pupils/students, either male or female. This is a growing canker and a disturbing issue for many learners and their parents, schools and society as a whole.
A parent or guardian enrolls his or her female ward in a school, invests the last pesewa in her education, anticipating a successful completion and bright future for her, only for a teacher who is expected to impart positive knowledge into that child
,rather makes her an object of sexual desire.
The horrific trend now, is that some male teachers even sodomise male students, while some female teachers also harass some female and male students.
Some ill-minded teachers with this selfish desire have their way with female students in the Basic and Senior High Schools, while others try but to no avail.
Both ways tend to have a lot of repercussion on children, especially emotionally, which in turn affects their ability to concentrate on studies as they swim in a pool of anxiety and distress.
Real Instances
In the case of a 12-year old girl at a private Basic School in Kumasi, she said her mother arranged a private lesson with her male Science teacher for her while at the Boarding house.
“Whenever I attended the class as the only student, this teacher will be making strange facial expressions to me which made me so uncomfortable in the class and unable to concentrate on whatever he taught me.
“Later, it got worse and he could sometimes open his zip while teaching me in the classroom. I had to bow down my head or look elsewhere out of fear, trembling and coyness. However unfortunately, I couldn’t contact my mother to tell her about it because I couldn’t access a phone and I was scared to report him to the school’s authorities.
“So later, I told my mother I wasn’t interested in the class again, even though I didn’t give her a reason but thankfully, she understood me,” she said.
In the case of a 17-year old girl at a Presbyterian Junior High School in Accra, her teacher in one way or the other got to know of her carnal knowledge with a 55-year old married man she was staying with whom she had had two abortions with against her will.
The teacher then threatened the girl to either let him have his way or broadcast her misconduct to her classmates and his co-teachers.
Another girl in the same school said: “You will be in the class and when students are on break and maybe you didn’t go, this teacher will call you to sit on his lap and ask you to to fondle his manhood. If you don’t do it, he will start hating you.”
Shockingly, the students said the Head teacher had been informed of this sickening behaviour of the teacher and he promised to deal with the situation, however, students never witnessed a slight positive change from the teacher, but rather a worse form.
A recent report published by the Ghana News Agency on February 2022, with the headline: “Teacher in court over indecent assault; victim filmed sexual act,” explains how a 55-year old teacher was being tried in court over an alleged indecent assault on a female student.
The teacher, known as Ernest Kwasi Tsikata was alleged to have fondled the breast of the 14-year old girl and attempted to have sex with her in his office after he running an errand for him.
The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire, explained that, knowing it was the way of life of the accused, the victim’s friends gave her a phone to record any unfortunate attack.
The accused then asked her to lock the door which she refused, therefore he locked the door himself, placed the key in his pocket, and started fondling the breast of the victim.
He said the accused took the victim to an inner small room where he held her two hands at her back, removed his trousers and boxer shorts and allegedly attempted sodomising her.
The Prosecution said the victim shouted and struggled with the accused, therefore he could not accomplish his desire and dressed up, after which he opened the door for the victim to leave his office.
Observations
One unfortunate thing observed is that, the incidence of teachers harassing and assaulting students sexually is more common in government or public basic schools as compared to those in the private schools.
An assumption and little interrogation proves that it is so because many people who send their wards to public schools are poor and vulnerable.
Such students from deprived homes sometimes seek financial support from teachers.
Teachers are able to feel how deserted and desperate they are based on their parents’ inactiveness and inadequate concern for their education as well as how much they struggle to pay fees. Some of the parents with wards in these schools don’t often even ask for the terminal report cards of their wards to monitor their performance.
In the private schools, the situation is quite different because parents are often able to afford the fees and anything the child might need for school.
At the same time, they are always there for their children, monitor their performance and behaviour at school every time, attend Parent-Teacher-Association meetings, and show the children great concern and love. They also teach their wards sex education and the need to stand up for their rights.
As a result, many of the teachers in private schools are unable to approach their students with such demands. This is because they might be scared of what their parents could do to them if they report them and what the School’s Authorities could do to them as well.
One assumption is that many of those who send their children to private basic schools are somewhat educated and know their rights while a significant number of those who enroll their wards in public schools are either illiterates or have acquired only basic formal education.
Moreover, such parents or guardians with wards in private schools empower their children to know their rights to say ‘no’ to all forms of harassments from whosoever and report them to the parents or school authorities.
Some schools of thought may argue that some of the children are already exposed and ‘spoilt’ outside the school and therefore agree to enter a romantic relationship with the teachers or in other ways, rather seduce the teachers and so the teachers could not be held liable of any crime or misconduct in anyway.
GES Code of Conduct Against Harassment
However, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has outlined a Code of Conduct for staff of the Service which should regulate their operations in and out of duty.
The Code warns staff in Part 5 (3.8b-c) against making students victims to psychological violence, stating that ‘no employee shall directly or indirectly do anything that may constitute sexual harassment of a pupil/student.’
It also states that ‘any staff who has carnal knowledge of any female or male pupil/student of any age, with or without his/her consent, shall be guilty of professional misconduct.’
Moreover, the Code notes that ‘no staff shall cause or encourage the seduction, carnal knowledge or prostitution of or the commission of indecent assault upon a pupil/student’ and ‘no employee shall detain any pupil/student for immoral purposes.’
One observation is that students who enter a relationship with teachers are often favoured in many ways in the classroom, including making high marks in their class tests and examinations.
Meanwhile the same GES Code states explicitly that: ‘No staff shall do anything that shall suggest or create the impression that a pupil/student is more favoured than any other pupil/student.’
Loopholes in Enforcement of GES Code of Conduct
That notwithstanding, some academicians and members of the public complain and state their suspicion over periods when the GES had ‘only’ transferred a teacher caught in a sexual relationship with a student who is also a minor, to another school in another town.
Apparently the transfer is the disciplinary action or punishment given to the teacher. However, that does not reshape the conduct of such a teacher, but only transfers his territory of inflicting pain on vulnerable children to another area of individuals. Something better could be done to discourage such misconducts.
Effects of Sexual Harassment on Survivors
According to the GES Council, such violence could affect the well-being of pupils/students, putting them at greater risk of educational failure through absenteeism, dropping out and lack of motivation for academic achievement.
It also impacts on their mental and physical health, resulting in physical injury, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV & AIDS) and emotional or psychological ill health.
Experts’ Opinion
Madam Christiana Azure Ayinzoya, a Regional Girls’ Education Officer, GES, said the GES was sensitizing girls to know that teachers were not allowed to wrongfully touch them, pass sexual comments about them or praise them sexually.
She asked students who became victims of sexual harassment and abuse to, with all boldness, report the perpetrators to the appropriate authorities for the requisite measures to be taken against them.
In an interview with Mrs Florence Ayisi-Quartey, the former Director, Department of Children of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, speaking on the punishment of transferring sexual predictor teachers to other schools, she called on the GES to immediately suspend them while investigations went on, to prevent the victims from being threatened around them.
She urged them to devise stringent measures like ceasing the perpetrator’s salary from the source until proven innocent to deter people from indulging in such acts.
She condemned the uncooperative nature of some parents whose children fall prey to these perpetrators after reporting the incidence to the Police, for varied reasons of ‘change of mind’ and wanting to settle the issue at home apparently because the perpetrator had pleaded to take responsibility in case pregnancy sets in or to compensate the victim.
“It is not just poor people who cover such misdeeds but well-to-do families too.
They have the perception that: ‘When we report, they will say our families are evil, that we frame up people. It will also disgrace our family name.’ The perpetrators know this and that is why they take advantage of the situation,” she added.
Mrs Ayisi-Quartey asked parents and children to bear in mind that sexual harassment, rape or defilement was not “just a one off act” but had a lingering effect on the victims in future.
“Girls and boys, prevent the happening of such unfortunate attacks, but report it right away in case it happens, to teachers you trust to help you, or to your parents and the right authorities especially the Police for intervention,” she advised.
She asked politicians, religious leaders, influential people and family members to stop interfering in justice seeking procedures for victims of sexual harassments and abuse.
To the young ones, the Director advised: “Saying no is not disrespect. Anything somebody does to you and you think you are uncomfortable with, say no and don’t go to places you are not supposed to go. Teachers are not supposed to send you to their rooms. You are always supposed to be at places that whatever is happening, everybody can see.
“Moreover, when you enter somebody’s room and he does something to you, people will tag you as a bad girl, asking what you went to the room for. So don’t even go there to stay safe.”
Mrs Ayisi-Quartey also encouraged victims of domestic or sexual and gender-based violence to call the Ministry of Gender’s toll-free call centre on, “0800 800 800” or “0800 900 900” to make their complaints for assistance.
She, however, said her office and the GES were working on a policy called the “Safe School Programme”, for schools to give children a total safe environment to study.
On the part of Ms Anne-Claire Dufay, the UNICEF Ghana Country Director, there should be absolute zero tolerance for violence in schools especially when it is done by teachers or personnel in the school, adding: “It’s unacceptable, full stop! There is no justification for physical violence.
“When it comes to sexual violence in particular, it’s horrifying and completely unacceptable. We have to understand that it’s a crime and so one has to go to prison.”
For such unacceptable conducts, she said UNICEF had developed programmes in schools to prevent bullying and violence between peers and teachers.
Ms Dufay noted that children had the right to say no to physical and sexual violence, bullying, and entreated them to speak up if they were harassed.
Mr Kobina Akese Mensah, a former teacher at the Amaniampong Senior High School, Asante Mampong, speaking on what triggers teacher-student relationship, says: “It’s multifaceted in a way but no matter who initiated it or even if the student was the spoilt one or bad one, the blame should always come back to the teacher.
“The student is often the kid so maturity should be exhibited by the teacher. Some children even fantasize about a teacher probably because he teaches well or something, but that same student will grow up, think about it and say ‘what was I even thinking at that time. So if you are a teacher and you grab a student or lure her into sleeping with her because of that, then you will be making a big mistake,” he said..
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