It is generally perceived among a cross-section of Ghanaians that the teacher’s reward is in heaven. Perhaps, this assertion may be due to the fact that the teacher’s contribution to the development of a child cannot be quantified in kind or cash.

Nevertheless, the rationale behind this baseless axiom is somewhat without ridicule. For what man on earth should be deprived of their due wage with an infantile excuse that their reward is in heaven? What if heaven eludes that individual? Small wonder many a person are unwilling to be teachers while those who are in the profession are thinking of mining better fortunes in other professions.

But one thing apart from this labour tragedy (i.e. poor remuneration) is the inescapable nicknames students paint their teachers with. I must admit that they (nicknames) are an integral part of the educational hazards and those who practise the noble profession of teaching must swallow them with pride. These nicknames cut across the education levels- junior high, senior high and the tertiary. Predominantly, the senior high school seems to be breeding ground for such unforgettable experience. Every Ghanaian who has passed through the senior high school can bear witness to this by recalling with profound excitement or indifference the nicknames of some of their teachers. Perchance, the common reasons students at the tertiary level assign few or no nicknames to their lecturers may be due to the fear of incurring the wrath of their lecturers which may lead to the students scoring low marks or possibly bagging strings of trails. The other reason could be the high degree of respect we attach to their person and status.

It is noteworthy that these nicknames are not stamped on teachers just only for fun but they materialise due to some immediate and remote reasons. A friend of mine prior to the writing of this piece told me an interesting story surrounding the nickname of his physics teacher during his secondary school days. He began by saying that his classmates wondered why their teacher walked by spreading his healthy legs apart as if he did not like them. After several deliberations, some said it was natural and as such he cannot be suffering from any physical defect. But one student suggested that it was because the teacher had bigger testicles hence his inability to keep his legs together. To make matters worse, one student posited that they should nickname him “Obodombelle”. According to this student, anybody in his village who walked in this manner was branded as such.

When the teacher got wind of the harm done him, he warned the students to desist from it. But the more he resisted, the more his nickname poured freely from the lips of students. He complained bitterly to his head of department who responded by advising the teacher in question to keep his cool because the headmaster is a victim. According to him, the headmaster is nicknamed after a notorious criminal called, “Ataa Ayi” all because some students deemed him as against their progress due to his extreme vigilance during examination.

As if that was not enough, the head of department recounted how he came by his own nickname, “high voltage” to the teacher in question. According to my friend, Mr. “Obodombelle” never complained again but composed himself until he left the school.

From the account above, when a teacher is placed in such humorous or annoying picture, in my estimation, there are only two things that he can do. Firstly, the teacher must feign disinterest with the hope that when they have had enough, they will keep quiet. The other action is, the teacher can identify the leaders of the group and punish them to serve as a deterrent to other students. To this end, one can posit that the labelling or nicknaming teachers is a factor of varied experiences. In other words, a teacher can be nicknamed based on the way he walks, talks, laughs and even the style of his teaching. Anyway, can you imagine the possible nickname of a teacher who stammers or whose native accent has an overwhelming influence over his spoken English? Without prejudice, I think our brothers from Ashanti, Volta and perhaps Ga state will surely bear the greater portion of the brunt of students who delight in making the life of some teachers uncomfortable.

I want you to take an expedition down the memory lane of your secondary or high school days. Recollect some of the nicknames some of your teachers bore with indignation or delight. Do you remember how your housemistress, housemaster, music tutor or French tutor used to warn you to desist from calling him or her names their parents never even thought of tagging them with?

Interestingly, some of these teachers also glory in their nicknames and boast about them to their colleagues. Sometimes, they even claim that the preponderance of their nicknames emanating from the lips of students is truly a measure of their popularity. This experience is not the same with other teachers. In my secondary school days, our economics tutor got furious, and made the whole class he was teaching weed intermittently the school farm for a whole term. What was their crime? A student had the audacity to shout from the back of the class these words, “krokokoko we cannot see” as he wrote on the board. He asked them to own the person up but they would not budge, hence his decision to punish the class collectively.

The apparent history behind the teacher’s nickname was that, one of the students saw the teacher selling live turkeys in the market during one of the vacations in order support his family. This student could not keep the news to his chest and propagated it with passion to the admiration of his mates when school resumed. The students who preferred the Twi version of the word turkey which is “krokokoko” helped the bearer of the news to do more damage. The teacher finally narrated his ordeal to his colleagues in anticipation of a consolation. His colleagues could not help but burst into peals of laughter after his narration. As he walked out, he could hear the faint whispers of “krokokoko” trailing behind him.

When it is about nicknames and teachers, the list is inexhaustible and I am pretty sure readers can add to the list provided. I must say that teachers cannot wish this phenomenon into oblivion. So far as we have students who sit under the influence and tuition of teachers, the former will surely discomfort the latter by way of nicknames.

Needless to say, perhaps Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had their fair share of their students apportioning nicknames to them although they greatly revered. If it was possibly done to teachers of yesterday, there is little teachers of today can do to avert its continuity.

I cannot wind up without echoing a plea. It is my earnest appeal that our dear teachers should find a huge heart to accommodate this extremity of the adolescent, who, when not checked can walk naked without being aware that they are exposing their naked buttocks.

Finally, teachers especially those who get peeved should receive this act from students as an innocuous occupational hazard and focus on shaping the future leaders of this country.

AUTHOR’S NAME: OKOFO-DARTEY SAMUEL

E-MAIL: sodesq2000@yahoo.com