The President of the National Graduate Association of Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, has taken on the management of St. Monica’s Senior High School(SHS) at Mampong in the Ashanti region over the death of a student.
The student, Patience Amanyi, was sick but the housemistress reportedly turned her away when she went to request an exeat to seek medical care.
She stayed on campus for some days, left virtually in the care of her colleague students.
The students took her to the Mampong Hospital after some days, on a day her condition had worsened, and she died same day.
But Mr Carbonu in an audio recording has said he cannot fathom the rationale behind the action of the housemistress, adding the death was avoidable.
“My dear colleague teachers, there is an unfortunate development at Mampong St. Monica’s SHS, which has led to the interdiction of the management of the school. I have had a lot of complaints from our members to intervene in the case. But I wonder how and why this situation should arise in the first place,” he fumed.
He continued, “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 centre 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?”
A livid Mr Carbonu indicated there have been several reports of parents being turned away in their quest to pick up their wards from school.
This situation he described as worrying as he questioned how much teachers are being compensated for this job he described as unnecessary.
To him, it will be best for people to resign if they feel the job is too much for them.
“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 noted.
ALSO READ:
Play audio above: