By Ishmael Junourgh 
This evening, while walking in my community to stretch my limbs, I decided to allow my mind to reflect on something I could share with my readers. After all, it has been a while since I shared a journalistic piece with the public. Well, it did not take me long to think about teachers.
A few days ago, teachers reportedly went on strike, as usual, to demand that the salaries of those who had been promoted be adjusted accordingly. In discussing the strike, a friend who is a teacher remarked that teachers do not scare anyone, so their strike would end nowhere. He added that teaching at all levels is not anything to envy. In his conclusion, he said, “As for teaching, it’s just a wasteful job.”
Well, a few days after the declaration of the strike, true to what my friend said about teachers being no threat to any government, the leaders of the teachers’ union leading the charge called off the strike. This followed their meeting with the Minister of Education and other stakeholders in education.
As I reflected on what my friend said, I remembered the case of a science professor at one of Ghana’s public universities who never stopped berating himself for having supposedly chosen the worst job until he passed away. He complained that even as a professor, his salary was less than that of his graduate student who had gone into either politics or industry.
To be sure, teaching is a noble vocation. The task of teaching people to think critically and mentoring them to live morally acceptable lives is noble. It also imposes on a teacher the responsibility to reasonably present himself or herself as a role model by living the virtues he or she teaches. A good teacher cannot teach virtue and practise vice. A teacher is also a bearer and practitioner of all the other professions.
He must counsel his students, understand their physical and spiritual needs, as well as respond to the penetrating questions students have. A good teacher must know what to teach and how to teach. Perhaps it is for this reason that all the prophets were teachers.
To fulfil the demands associated with their vocation, teachers must necessarily mortgage their feelings. Good teachers cannot have what is generally called “teacher’s copy.” They cannot enjoy “optical nutrition.” Their children cannot underperform. They must appear joyful at all times to inspire their students. Ultimately, they have to be “dehumanised” of pleasures.
More than that, teachers have moral obligations to their families, faith communities, and friends. Particularly, university teachers, in public perception, are expected to have titles such as “Dr” and “Prof” that carry monetary value rather than knowledge value. Who cares much about the knowledge of a teacher or titled person when it is not measured seamlessly by economic rewards?
Thus, at social activities such as marriage, naming, and funeral ceremonies, university teachers in particular are expected to dole out huge sums of money as donations. They are also expected to have a sartorial and general material culture that matches their titles. A university teacher must drive a certain car, wear a certain kind of cloth, and eat a certain kind of food.
Lest I forget, he is expected to help with admissions into the university for kin and non-kin members. Even if a university lecturer cannot genuinely help anyone gain admission other than on merit, a university teacher is expected to perform magic and pull the strings.
To add to it, teachers are constantly writing multiple recommendations for their students, yet none ever says “thank you” properly. It appears that all other professionals can ask for something extra for the little extra things they do. Journalists can ask for “soli.” Men of God can quote the Bible that says a man of God shall eat from his labour and ask for a seed to be sown into their lives. Police officers do their jobs of checking drivers’ licences and other documents, but the practice is often accompanied by money discreetly tucked into a palm. A mason and other professionals can “cut corners.” But remember, a teacher cannot teach virtue and practise vice.
Yet most Ghanaian teachers at all levels can barely afford to go on a pleasure-seeking holiday. Several of them cannot even afford to spend a couple of days at La Palm Beach Hotel.
As far as I know, most teachers live on loans until they possibly die. A friend jokingly told me that “as for a teacher, you may not be able to do a big project, but you will never sleep on an empty stomach.” This certainly smacks of an expectation that a teacher should simply be content.
Back in primary school, I noticed that most of my male teachers hardly dressed well. Their shoes, in particular, hardly inspired hope. They hardly had a three-piece suit, and if they had one, you could be sure it was second-hand and oversized. Their appearance often seemed to tell a story of quiet financial struggle rather than the dignity society associated with the noble profession they represented.
The female teachers, too, often had to supplement their meagre incomes by selling things to us pupils, sometimes provisions and other small items, simply to stay economically afloat. This was another indication that their salaries were often inadequate to meet their needs.
Teachers also talk more than most people realise, not because they necessarily want to, but because talking is an essential part of the job. They explain, repeat, question, correct, counsel, encourage, and sometimes raise their voices just to be heard. In the process, many lose their voices. Yet, even when their throats are sore and their voices have become strained, they can hardly afford the original “hask” that might soothe their throats. Even the simple comforts that come with a demanding profession can become luxuries for a teacher.
It is possible that such persistent economic and social pressures also had an effect on the psychology of some teachers. The frustrations of a profession that demanded so much while giving so little may sometimes have found an unfortunate outlet in the classroom. Some teachers appeared to displace their frustrations by spanking learners unreasonably, sometimes over the least provocation. This, of course, did not describe all teachers, many of whom were patient, compassionate, and remarkably restrained. But where it happened, one could not help wondering whether the teacher’s own burdens and frustrations had become entangled with the exercise of authority over vulnerable children.
In my observation, teachers who appear to do well in their appearance are those with multiple businesses and/or support from elsewhere. Otherwise, teachers at all levels generally tend to live on a shoestring.
It is certainly no wonder that in a class of learners under 18 years old, when a teacher asked who among them would want to become a teacher, none raised their hands. Later, possibly out of sympathy, one of them did. The teacher could not hide his pleasure and kept insisting that the rest of the learners clap for their friend.
But while the clapping was ongoing, the teacher noticed that the boy’s hand was still raised. He then asked him what else he had to add.
The boy responded, “Sir, I had not finished talking when you asked everyone to clap for me. I wanted to add that when I get a good job, I will stop teaching.”
I am thankful that nearly all my teachers at all the levels of my education were excellent. They had conviction, competence, and compassion for their work. They did not see the classroom as a transitional zone for a “better job.”
Today, the story is significantly different. Many teachers are stressed. The extended family is on a progressive nosedive. The decentralisation of development is nothing short of political rhetoric. In the end, most teachers are expected to do what families would hitherto have done and where government is expected to intervene.
Regrettably, at the pre-secondary-school level, it appears that quality is on the decline. Whether caused by teachers or not, teachers, like several others, are coughing up huge sums of money to give their children reasonably good education.
Well, what takes one to heaven?
There is no equivocation for an evangelical Christian like myself to conclude that “salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.” But if we are saved to work, then must a teacher, qua teacher, not have heaven as a reward?
What is heaven if it is not also about pleasure for the sake of heaven? And who does this better than a teacher?
Satyagraha