The president of the National Graduates Association of Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, has criticized the authorities of St. Monica’s Senior High School in Mampong, over the death of a female student.

According to a news report by citinewsroom.com, the deceased was denied an exeat to go to the hospital by a house mistress, resulting in her untimely death.

The report stated that the unfortunate incident happened in May 2023 thus the management of the school is being investigated.

Angel Carbonu who has been devastated by the news, in an audio recording, furiously questioned why the management of the school could act in such a manner by denying a sick girl the access of going to the hospital for treatment.

He said “A girl falls sick and comes for exeat to go to the hospital, the girl is shown to the house staff. And the girl was denied exeat, leading to the death of this girl. Now people are threatening brimstone against the Ghana Education Service, teachers are being insulted left-right, and center on local radio stations, and so on and so forth.

“My colleagues, sometimes I don’t know what is wrong with us the teachers, drawing onto ourselves, problems, and challenges that no one compensates us for. If a student is sick, and there is evidence that the student is sick, and the student comes to you for an exeat, what on earth do you benefit from refusing an exeat for the student to go to the hospital? What do you stand to gain as a teacher for refusing to give exeat to a student to go to the hospital?”

Angel Carbonu further explained that the issue of students being denied exeat to go for treatment or treat other important matters has been going on for a while and it must come to a halt.

He also argued that teachers are the cause of their own troubles, adding that when they feel they are being overburdened by a lot of responsibilities, they should quit and allow a responsible person to take over.

“We have reports where parents have come to the schools to take their own children home for this and that reason and school authorities will say I will not allow it. At the end of the day, when there is a problem, you want all of us to share the problem. How much are you being compensated for, for a job that is unnecessarily done by you? That people don’t even recognize? The story in Mampong is a very sad one. An innocent girl lost her life just because a house mistress refused to do her duty.

“How can you say it’s not time for exeat and therefore whether you are sick or not, dying or not, I’m not going to give you exeat? Colleague teachers, sometimes we attract ourselves into invectives and negative expressions people make against us. If you feel that the housemistress job is too much for you, you can resign. There’s no need for this girl to die at St. Monica’s SHS at all,” he pointed out.

ED/DA