Teachers desert St John’s Basic School

Teachers of the St John’s Basic School at Accra New Town have deserted the school, forcing the authorities to close it down indefinitely.

That followed an attack on the teachers last Tuesday by thugs alleged to have been sent to the school by a 15-year-old female pupil of the school.

The Class Five pupil, whose identity has been withheld, is said to have sent the six thugs, who were wielding broken bottles, canes, sticks and knives, to the school.

She is said to have caused the attack after she had angrily walked out of her class when her teacher punished her for misconducting herself.

She is said to have left the class unceremoniously during a reading lesson because she was unable to pronounce the word ‘entertainment’ when her teacher asked her to read a section of a textbook.

Reports said the girl snubbed her teacher and refused to kneel down when the teacher asked her to do so as her punishment.

Some of her classmates claimed she picked her schoolbag and left the classroom, only to return 20 minutes later with six unidentified men who started chasing and beating up the teachers. 

Some personal effects of the teachers, including mobile phones, laptops, tables and money, were reported stolen in the process.

Video 

When the Daily Graphic visited the school, it found that all the classrooms had been closed and there were no pupils in the school.

A video of the incident, which is suspected to have been captured by one of the pupils with a mobile phone, has since gone viral.

In the video, pupils and teachers of the school are seen running helter-skelter as the hoodlums went berserk battering anyone in their way.

Some residents of the area told the Daily Graphic that there had been no classes since Tuesday when the incident happened.

One of the residents who lives a few metres away from the school, said many of the pupils had been coming around the school, while the final-year pupils, who would write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) next week, had been left in the lurch.

Police 

When the Daily Graphic contacted the Nima Divisional Police Command where a complaint was lodged after the incident, the Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Nuhu Jango, said a manhunt had been mounted for the unidentified members of the gang.

“The men who allegedly attacked the teachers have disappeared but we are picking intelligence and we will soon close in on them,” he said.

He said a statement had been taken from the pupil at the centre of the incident and the police were profiling her to investigate her background.

He indicated that the police had intensified patrols in the area and assured the teachers, pupils and residents of their safety.

What happened 

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Grace Richman, said the incident had left the 12 teachers of the school traumatised, with some of them even considering transfers from the school.

She said the heavily built men moved from class to class and assaulted the teachers indiscriminately.

She said many of the teachers, mostly females, were slapped and beaten.

She said one of the male teachers was forced to scale over a wall of the school when a member of the group threatened to stab him with a knife.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central, Mr Henry Quartey, is said to have paid the medical bills of the assaulted teachers.

Plea

Following the incident, the Greater Accra Regional branch of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) condemned the attack in a statement issued to the media.

“We condemn and urge all well-meaning stakeholders to condemn in no uncertain terms this backward attitude of using violence to settle scores in this 21st century,” it said.

Meanwhile, the pupil at the centre of the matter has claimed she does not know the members of the gang who attacked the teachers.

She said the men accompanied her to the school when she told them her story after they had spotted her walking home in tears.

One of the girl’s uncles, who did not want to be named, urged the management of the school to reconsider their decision to close down the school.