I wish to confess that I am not a professional teacher. By this confession, I know some people may question why I should then be seen to be crying more than the bereaved as far as issues affecting teachers are concerned.

But as a parent, whose children are being taught by teachers, and myself having ever been a “non-professional teacher” I could not help but comment on the worrying and disturbing development of thugs physically abusing teachers.

To start with, the teaching profession is not only an enviable one but also a noble one. There is no professional that can boldly say that he /she was not taught by a teacher.

In fact, the profession is also very demanding and challenging. Unlike many professionals, whose duties end in their offices after they closed from work, a teacher’s work does not end in the classroom. Even at home and during holidays teachers are busily working. If parents would be sincere to themselves they would admit that it’s a herculean task handling their own children [who are few in numbers] at home.

How much more a single teacher, taking care of about sixty students/pupils, with different family and social backgrounds? In the universities for instance, over five hundred students do some courses and guess what, the lecturer has to mark their assignments, conduct class tests, and mark their examination scripts in addition to supervising long essays and theses.

What we turn to forget is that the teacher, just like any other professional, also has other social commitments to meet apart from their official responsibilities. It is therefore unacceptable to add salt to injury by not allowing them to have their peace of mind to work.

Why should we, by our actions torture them physically and emotionally? Well, someone may argue that every job has its own “juicy benefits” and “occupation hazards” and that people chose to become teachers on their own volition. Given that such an argument is even true, does that warrant a physical attack on their lives?

Just as sociologists have observed that deviants will never cease to be in the society, there may be few bad nuts among teachers who may drag the name of the profession in the mud but majority are doing a very good job by imparting knowledge and also serving as role models to others.

I had a friend who always told me that he would never be a teacher. In fact, he gave reasons why he was not interested in the teaching profession. However, his decision changed dramatically later. During our second year in the university, we had a very good lecturer. He never missed lectures. His teaching methods were excellent.

During our revision week [prior to our end of year examinations] he revised with us all that he taught in the semester and told us the possible areas that his examination questions might come from. He was very patient and had time for everybody. In fact, he was not only our lecturer but also our father. Guess what! At the end of our second year, my friend told me:“Sammy, I’ll like to teach after school; I want to be like this lecturer” True to my friend’s word, he is currently a professional teacher.

It is very demoralizing when teachers are making all kinds of sacrifices and efforts to impart knowledge, only to be rewarded with slaps and other forms of physical and mental abuse.

These days hardly a week passes by without us hearing about thugs in a community attacking teachers or defecating in their classrooms. In some cases, the school premises are turned into ghettos where some social deviants openly deal in illicit drugs, thereby exposing the school children to abuse. But what are some of the possible causes of such unacceptable behavior?.

First of all, I see it as gross indiscipline and lawlessness. No disciplined and law abiding citizen will do such things. Another reason, I believe, is lack of respect for teachers. Some parents openly insult teachers in the presence of their children at home and make derogatory remarks about them; and by so doing the students have no respect for their teachers.

Gone were those days when a parent voluntarily asked a teacher to discipline his/ her child at school when the child misbehaved. These days, let a teacher punish a child for wrongdoing and hell will let loose.

I would not like to make any comparisons. But how many times have we ever heard that thugs entered an office, dragged a professional and beat him/ her up in the person’s own office in the presence of his colleague staff? So why should we do such a thing to teachers? Or is it a crime to be a teacher? I was shocked to the marrow to hear in the news that a class five pupil (girl) in one of the basic schools in Accra reported his teacher to her boyfriend for punishing her at school.

The boyfriend, together with other thugs went and beat the teacher in the school resulting in the closure of the school. A class five girl having a boyfriend? Incredible! This is where parenting comes in. What kind of training is being given to such a girl at home? How responsible are her parents?

Could it even be that her boyfriend is the one looking after her at school? There are some (irresponsible) parents who do not care about what their children eat, what they wear and where they sleep. In fact educating their children is none of their business, let alone training them to become responsible citizens.

The sad thing is that, as the children take care of themselves they also give birth to their “kinds” and the “irresponsibility cycle” continues. One would not be too bothered if such people eventually suffer alone for shirking their parental responsibilities.

Unfortunately, society in general suffers. Attacks on teachers have been going on for some time now. My question is what punishment was given to the perpetrators? Was the punishment severe enough to deter others from embarking on such disgraceful and unacceptable acts? It is time school authorities reinforced security measures in their schools to prevent hooligans and thugs from entering their schools.

Truth must be told; there are some teachers whose conducts also leave much to be desired. Being torch- bearers of discipline in the society, they should try as much as possible not to engage in social vices which would bring the name of their profession into disrepute. Another critical issue is the type of punishment they give to students. In fact, this is one of the major causes of the conflict between them and parents.

Although they have the right to discipline students, the type of punishment they mete out should commensurate with the offence committed by the students, otherwise parents would naturally not be happy to see their wards hurt in the name of discipline.

Teachers make us all what and where we are today. Enough of our disrespect to them!. If we can not reward them appropriately according to their invaluable contributions to the human resource development of the country, we should not take away their peace and happiness by attacking them physically and emotionally.

Writer’s e-mail: samueldzandu5@yahoo.com