Every career shapes people and none is more important than another, because every career touches a life. A carpenter who refuses to buy quality materials can kill people with his work.
A journalist who reports half-truths can push society towards conflict. A medical doctor who chooses sudden wealth over integrity will not mind harming every life they could have helped.
Our professions are tools life gives us to carve a path for others. The work of our hands is not only about us. It shapes every life that sits at our table.
Teaching is no exception. A teacher is a protector, a guide who shows students which path leads to righteousness and which leads to death.
When a teacher speaks, the room falls silent, because their voice carries authority. Every beginner needs their counsel.
It is thus disheartening when predators pose as teachers. When a teacher becomes a sexual abuser, no excuse can justify their actions. They were supposed to lead the way, not betray the trust of those who revere them.
If a student is not safe with a teacher, they are safe nowhere.
When I wrote my children’s book, Animuonyam and the Queer Man, in 2023, I was concerned about our children’s safety.
When I wrote the original musical, In the Pants of a Woman, in 2024, I was concerned about the safety of our women, young and old.
Conversations about this taboo topic are the only way to raise awareness among our children. The more ignorant they are, the more emboldened abusers become.
A woman’s body is hers alone, but in a system as broken as ours, how certain are we that our children, especially our daughters, are safe wherever they are? How safe are they when they leave home to earn a living for their families?
Every parent should be concerned about their children at school. For some abusers, the classroom is a refuge: it brings them an inch closer to unsuspecting victims.
They use existing power dynamics to their advantage and bully victims into silence. In some cases, they buy off poorer victims with a paltry sum and move on to the next. This must stop.
A report by the Girls Excellence Movement (GEM) and UNICEF, titled Sheltered Yet Exposed, surveyed about 2,000 girls in 15 junior and senior high schools across four southern regions: Greater Accra, Volta, Central and Eastern. It found that 51.9 per cent had experienced sexual assault between 2019 and 2021.
Of these, 54.3 per cent were aged 17 to 22, while 45.7 per cent were aged 11 to 16.
In other words, over half of the girls surveyed had experienced sexual assault of some sort. The study also names relatives and neighbours among perpetrators, but schools, where teachers hold authority over children, carry a particular duty of care.
This cannot continue. Our girls must be protected from abusers, especially those posing as teachers. Now is the time to weed out everyone who has turned our schools into hunting grounds.
For every student who is sexually abused, several other people bear the brunt. A single act of sexual violence sets off a chain of harm. The victim may turn to drugs or drop out of school, and their family pays the price. Some victims attempt suicide.
It is appalling to hear that a teacher found culpable of sexually assaulting students is merely transferred—to another school, where they may reoffend.
This archaic practice empowers abusers in a space where we should be raising the next generation of leaders. Until the hammer falls on these culprits, theirs will keep falling on our innocent students.
A broken system shields rapists because it blames the victim before it listens to them. It breaks the faith that victims of abuse have in justice.
The perpetrator is confident that nothing will happen to them, and too often they are proved right.
A broken system, however, eventually fails everyone. An institution that shields abusers today forfeits the trust of every parent tomorrow, and no child within it is safe.
People who defend rapists enable them. People who ask victims why they were in their abuser’s room are not merely asking questions; they are telling us whose side they are on. Anyone who sweeps a report of abuse under the carpet shares responsibility for the harm that follows.
Whenever you are tempted to exploit a student, remember that every student is somebody’s child. Think about the price everyone will pay for your selfishness. Schools and the Ghana Education Service must report, investigate and prosecute, not transfer.
Kobina Ansah is the Chief Scribe of Scribe Productions (www.scribeproductions.com) and Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com).
