ARE TEACHERS THE REAL CAUSE OF PUPILS’ LOW ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES


Should this teacher be blamed for poor academic work of his pupils?

Written by Marco Boahen Frimpong
Wed, 15th August, 2018         9:40pm

When I sit down to analyse the path our basic education system is trailing, I begin to cry. Gone are the days where pupils in public schools burned the midnight candles just to maintain a position or overtake someone on the terminal report rating scale.

We live in a day where parents prefer to buy clothes for all occasions to buying books for their wards in the public schools. We live in a day where parents know that their upper primary or J.H.S daughter has a boyfriend and they are ok with it. We live in a day where parents do not even know the class their children are in. We live in a day where caning a child is like insulting the chiefs in our villages.
Gone are the days where pupils went to school early for fear of being caned or punished. Gone are the days where pupils feared to attend jams and wake-keepings for the fear of his or her name being written down by a spy set by the teachers and headmaster. Gone are the days where pupils did their homework very well for fear of being teased by his or her colleagues for getting low marks.

Now are the days where pupils go to school anytime they want. Now are the days where pupils position themselves in ways that their teachers will see them at jams and wake-keepings. Now are the days where pupils do their homework on their way to school, at the food joints and even in their classrooms when they are supposed to clean the compound.
There have been a lot of indiscipline in our basic schools which has contributed to the drop in academic work in our basic schools.
My question is, “Who is responsible for all these?” Is it the teacher, the student, parents, our education system or what?


But instead of our leaders going deep into the situation and bringing out the best ways to solve these situations, they are rather busy bringing out new laws all in the name of human rights and justice.


How many parents whose children attend basic schools ask their wards if they were given homework or not? How many still ask for their children’s report cards at the end of the term?


Now, cane a pupil and you are bound to face a panel at the Ghana Education service, the parents and even the community. Give pupils homework and they will choose to either do it or not. Why? Because the teacher cannot cane him or her.


They say that if you want to cane a child for wrong doing, seek permission from the headteacher first. There is no problem with this but what are we communicating to our pupils? That their teachers have no right over them?
The saddest of them all is that after all these, we, the teachers receive the blames for the child poor academics. How will he or she do well when he or she doesn’t even pay attention and take class work seriously? How can our children do well when our teachers have lost their pride and dignity in the sight of the pupils all in the name of human rights?


Our media has taken over the minds of all our kids and there are little or no spaces in the minds of these children for studies in the morning. Telenovelas have been the order of the day. These programs are being shown day in day out. Ask a class two pupil to sing the soundtracks of all the telenovelas being shown on TV and you will be shocked at the number of songs the child will sing but put a 2+2 work on the board and you will be shocked at the number of people who will get it right.


The problem is not the teachers. The problem is the system. I can boldly say that no matter the level of reforms done in our education system, if we do not restore the old system of education and discipline, our pupils will continue to wallow in the pool of poor academic work.


As we reform our system, lets not also forget to reform our modes of discipline, the attitude of parents, community influence and media presentations and only then can we achieve a quality basic education. 

I speak for peace, unity and tranquillity. God bless us all.

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