Teachers must allow students to do independent work

Teachers of old, especially in the rural communities, were not just teachers in the classroom but were considered role models, catechists, and Sunday School instructors.

This multi-task role, made teachers special and revered and were, therefore, seen as the yardstick of honesty, purity, discipline and uprightness.

This role of the teacher can no longer stand the test of time in the eyes of society, which once revered them.

In recent times, teachers have been accused of impregnating teenagers put under their care, and, currently, they are major culprits in exam malpractice.

Aside from awarding schoolchildren undeserved marks in exchange for favours, teachers are now directly involved in external examination malpractice.

Media reports abound over the years of teachers entrusted with ensuring scandal-free examinations turning out to be the culprits.

What a sad situation! The question now is, how safe are we if we still entrust our children to the care of the teacher?

No doubt, there are still very disciplined teachers in our schools who are trying to instil time-tested virtues into our children, the reason every year the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) would issue a warning to teachers to desist from aiding students to sit their final examination.

The Daily Graphic is scandalised by the act of some of the teachers and has therefore endorsed the warning of those who are bent on tarnishing the image of the noble teaching profession.

Last Monday, the Upper West Regional Coordinator of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Donald Tuor, raised alarm about the role of teachers in the examination malpractice at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which ends today (Wednesday).

He said the teachers aided the candidates to cheat in the examination by solving the questions and placing them in examination halls or pre-arranged places for the candidates to pick up.

Mr Tuor explained that the teachers would hide in bushes, solve the questions, drop them in the examination halls for the candidates or place them in toilets for the candidates to go for them.

This is serious, and our teachers must bow their heads in shame for letting down the trust reposed in them, and we urge the good ones to be bold to call out those miscreants among them.

It is a shame that while some are working hard to uplift the good name of the teacher, others can stoop so low for their selfish interests.

The Daily Graphic urges teachers to allow the students to do independent work and not interfere with, particularly, exams.

Maybe, the authorities must relook at the sanction regime as to whether it is deterrent enough.

For the Daily Graphic, we believe the sanctions are not deterrent enough and should be reviewed to make engaging in exam malpractice unattractive.

While blaming the teachers for the misconduct, it is also important to look at the role of parents and guardians. 

It is a fact that parents are as guilty as the teachers because if parents do not offer their children such money, the students on their own cannot afford the amount given out to entice the teachers.

The consequences of this for the future of our nation are dire because we are teaching our children to appreciate that cheating or bribing is acceptable in our society, and once you have money, you can bribe your way through.

This surely means that the integrity of our future professionals is not guaranteed.

The stethoscope will find itself around the neck of an unqualified individual calling himself a doctor, while our safety on the roads, in the air or on the sea hangs in the balance as those machines will be manned by unqualified individuals calling themselves engineers.

It is time we started inculcating in our children at a tender age, the spirit of integrity and it is at this point that I doff my hat for Dr Emmanuel Odame for starting the Honour Ghana Club in basic schools, which seeks to instil honesty, respect, integrity and self-esteem in the children as they grow.

This club should be formed in all basic schools to help raise morally upright individuals to be the nation’s future leaders.

We cannot afford to raise our next generation to believe that all is about money.