Statement From The Teachers Coalition For Good Governance (TCGG about the 2nd lady)

In Matilda Amissah Arthur, Ghana has found its answer to Marie Antoinette –

The 18th Century French Queen whom, on hearing of a shortage of the staple food of bread amongst her subjects, infamously snorted, “let them eat cake”.

With an imperious unrivaled arrogance, in belittling the request of a primary school head teacher for the government to provide basic teaching materials, such as chalk, the Second Lady has insulted every hard-working Ghanaian teacher and has shown how callous and out of touch the NDC government is from the population it purports to serve.

“Chalkgate” has also served to bring into sharp focus the perilous state of education services in the country and the insouciance with which the government treats the situation.

After all, it is not beyond the realms of reason that the government, to a government-run school, facilitates the provision of basic teaching aids and equipment such as chalk, log books, registers and notebooks. That a head teacher had to raise the issue of inadequate provision of basic materials directly with the Second Lady, is indeed a damning indictment of education in the country. Notwithstanding the fact that many children in this day and age are studying under trees or uncompleted buildings, we now have the embarrassment of teachers not even having chalk to write with, registers to record attendance and exercise books for pupils to write in. It is a sorry state of affairs. In Ghana, we have an education service that is not even worthy of being termed as such; for it is not fit for purpose.

Time after time, the government insults the intelligence, integrity and dignity of teachers. What should be a laudable profession, held in high-esteem, has been denigrated and dismissed at every turn. Wages, which are often late, have failed to keep pace with the rampant inflation that cripples the country and incentives, such as the Teacher’s Training Allowance, have been withdrawn meaning the best and the brightest avoiding teaching as a career altogether. Mrs Amissah Arthur’s assertion that teachers have been “spoilt” is the final ignominious insult.

“Spoilt”? Really?

On what planet is the second lady living on? If the Second Lady and the NDC government thinks that pupils and teachers are thriving in an oasis of well-equipped and well-funded schools then they really have their heads in the clouds. How much more out of touch can the government get? If President Mahama and his cronies decided to descend from their ivory towers they might just understand the meaning of empathy and the plight of teachers and pupils in the country. Mrs Amissah Arthur’s suggestion to the head teacher at the centre of Chalkgate that “teachers and PTA should go and buy it” (in reference to chalk), was the Second Lady’s “Marie Antoinette” moment. With a callous arrogance, Mrs Amissah Arthur as patronises and insults teachers nationwide. Across the length and breadth, teachers are struggling with inadequate to non-existent resources and the Second Lady’s response is effectively “let them eat cake”? It’s ridiculous! If the situation was not so serious, such an attitude would be would be worthy of comedy.

Yet again, following a long line of humiliations that the government has served to teachers during its inglorious tenure, Chalkgate has shown that the government views them as unimportant nonentities. Education is evidently not a government priority, with the future prosperity of millions of Ghanaian children happily sacrificed for the sake of political expediency.

It is noted that the opprobrium that Ms Amissah Arthur has attracted, in the wake of Chalkgate, has seen her desperately cobble together an apology. TCGG unequivocally tells Ms Amissah Arthur to keep her false contrition. In any case, her ‘apology’ is nothing more than a PR exercise designed to save face in the midst of searing criticism than any sorrow on her part for the insult to the dignity of the downtrodden Ghanaian teacher.

Of note the earlier Marie Antoinette and her husband, King Louis, were subsequently overthrown by their subjects in the French Revolution. We now live in more democratic times. However President Mahama and his bunch of NDC cronies should heed this lesson from history. A government can only take its subjects for fools for so long. History always repeats itself.

July 23rd 2015

Afia Kodua
0244967074

Alfred Amankwah
0244545434

Benard Barffour Gyawu
024 484 0157

Gideon Osei Dumgyah
0242340403

Augustine Nkrumah
0200620632