Muta Writes✍️✍️✍️
Last night, I had a short conversation with a good friend of mine from Monico who once served in their SRC. As usual, I expected her to defend the actions of the Father.
She described the man as a generous father who held morality in high esteem.
According to her, it was typical of the father as he occasionally gave hugs and pegs to the students.
Despite the nice words she used in describing the man who pays the fees of some students from underprivileged homes, she said to me, “if the man is found guilty, he should be punished”.
Just as those lecturers who were found guilty in the documentary (sex for grade) could not escape theirs, he shouldn’t be made to escape his too.
In 2019, when BBC showed their documentary on “sex for grade”, I wished it had been done in our colleges of education.
“We” know/knew some colleagues of ours who had been harassed by lecturers on campus. These people had “NO VOICE” speaking for them.
Imagine a student reporting a lecturer to the dean after being harassed in his or her lecturer’s office, the stigma which comes with it would not make his or her stay peaceful.
One would simply ask, what happened to the T-TEL sexual harassment policy drafted in our colleges of education?
If I was asked, I would say that, the “MOST DANGEROUS” people in our colleges of education were not the ordinary lecturers who constantly abused the students. They were the people who held offices. The Principals, vice- Principals, Dean and Chaplain.
The chaplains who were involved in drafting the sexual harassment policy, and was supposed to ensure that morality was held to a standard, were the same people fingered in some cases of harassment.
Back in training college, we heard many stories of harassment. Sometimes, from the victims or friends of the victim.
Some of these stories involved sexual attacks on male students by “a male staff” or attacks from females who had gone to the chaplain who served as counsellors for counseling or sometimes from the Vice – Principal who offered safe haven for females in level 100, in exchange for sex.
No one could be trusted as rumours of female lecturers were fingered in these sexual harassment cases.
For me, the sexual harassment policy drafted by the staff and T-TEL was meant to apprehend students and not their lecturers.
Maybe, T-TEL should have a second look at it, going forward. I would have proposed that, an independent organisation would be established for victims to report to them instead of the chaplaincy.
With that, the policy would be enforced.
But then again, you remember the words of President Obama when he asked Ghanaians to allow their institutions to work?
Just asking, What if the victim also catches the eye of their helpers from the independent institution too?
