This is what I have listed one of
my JHS teachers as in my phone contacts; the result of a not so pleasant experience. I have to say that’s just 1 out of 10 workshops
where this happened and even then the other participants were so nice that it
was difficult to let him sully the whole workshop. Kev earned his phone surname of ‘Arse’ by
acting like one complete arse from the moment he met me. I am pleased to say this is a rare occurrence
from my experience of Ghanaian people.
His first question to me was ‘How much T&T will we be getting?’ in a
very abrasive, I am the elder therefore gain respect whether I deserve it or
not kind of way. Age gains you
everything in Ghana… not much is gained through merit unless you are old and
worthy of additional respect due to merit….If you are just old having gained
nothing through merit you are still considered worthy. I told him to wait a few minutes and the T
& T situation would be explained. I
told them all together what they would be getting, that there would be no
T&T and that if they weren’t happy with that situation they were free to go
and that would be fine. I directly asked
Kev if he was ok with the situation as he had already enquired about T&T. ’No,
no, no’ he said half laughing, ‘it is fine, fine’. By break I could tell he
would be the annoying participant asking pointless questions, wasting every
ones time. The number of times he reminded us that he had taught many of the
other participants Science (another step to prove her deserved respect) and
that he was currently doing a masters degree at Cape Coast University was any
ones guess and I began to answer with ‘Yes Kev, you have already shared that
with us’ which I was hoping he was hearing as ‘shut the f**k up’… I was too
subtle. He said he would be going home for break. He didn’t want the mineral as it was full of
carbon dioxide (fab.. you know the gas inside you must be a brilliant scientist….read:
sarcasm). His 15 min break turned into
nearly an hour and a half. We didn’t
wait for him but carried on with the workshop, he came marching in and demanded
my attention right in the middle of me explaining something to the other
participants. I made him wait. He told me his daughter was sick which is why
he had had to go home and he needed to go to the bank. I told him if he left not to bother coming
back as he will have missed the majority of the workshop. ‘It is true’ he said,
‘these people will support me, I have taught them. I am an honest man; you will support me won’t
you?’ He said demanding the response from a young woman, who to her absolute
credit said ‘No’. at which point he said
‘My daughter will die’ which made me soooo angry, I firmly and very directly
said to him ‘Sir. Are you telling me your daughter is going to die? as you said, you are an honest man, so please
tell me the truth. Because if this is the case you MUST go NOW. I will explain to your headmaster why you
have left, do not worry’. At which point
he replied, ‘You will explain to my headmaster? Fine I will stay’. Kev made it to 12.30 at which point after a
lot of irritating questions and inane statements he finally said ‘I have to go
to the bank now’ again. At which point I said ‘fine,
go’. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief
to be honest. Unfortunately this was the first workshop where the circuit
supervisor was not present and I thought he was testing me to see how far I
would go. Now I know the truth, I am not
even sure the circuit supervisor (CS) would have made a difference, knowing his
background he might just have kicked him out earlier though. I spoke to the CS the next day and he
immediately phoned Kev demanding he go to a meeting with himself and the head teacher that same day. The head teacher had already dismissed him
that day as he was drunk…. It seems he was also drunk the previous day at my workshop. In fact he has a history of being drunk on
the job…. Here is the letter of apology he was asked to write.
Unfortunately
this is a big problem for education in Ghana (drunk teachers in charge of
classes) little is done to discipline them in most cases teachers are simply
moved to another school where the new head teacher is made aware of the problem and
enlisted to ‘reform’ them.
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