In 2018, Owura Kwadwo Hottish, a teacher in a remote part of Ghana staged an act of ingenuity which caught global attention, won his acclaim and his students and their community, critical infrastructure support.
Hottish had drawn an entire Microsoft Word interface on the blackboard in order to give his pupils a fair idea of what the real computer monitor looked like.
It was the closest he could take them to experiencing what was contained in their practical ICT lessons.
Three years on, latching onto the #FixGES campaign launched by fellow teacher and comedian, Teacher Kwadwo, Hottish has given a backstory into how officials of Ghana Education Service in his district summoned and censured him for his efforts at the time.
In an August 16, 2021 Facebook post he lamented the summons and queries that were directed at him even though he had acceded to an order to write a report to the District head of GES, a piece he referred to as GES PROPAGANDA.
“I wrote the letter and carried it along with the first laptop I received to Asante Mampong. On reaching there, I introduced myself and the acting director got furious with me simply because, according to her, she had a call from the highest office questioning what’s happening at her Municipal. So she asked me the following questions:
- Why did you do that?
- Are you a trained teacher?
- Have you read the code of ethics of GES?
“I kept my cool to all these questions and answered only the third one by saying NO and she was like “that’s why”
“Today, I decided to go through the code of ethics of GES and saw this “ TEACHERS ARE TO PROTECT THE INTEREST OF THE EMPLOYER,“ his post read in part.
He further lamented the plight of teachers especially in the rural areas, many of whom make sacrifices in order to get to their schools and to impart knowledge in their pupils.
Hottish described GES postings to some places as slavery and tasked fellow teachers to stand up and speak up
“The betterment of our education system depends on you and I, let’s rise to uplift ourselves from GES slavery. We the teachers are on the ground and knows all the problems we are facing.
“If we come together to talk about it, the better for us. Ghana’s education system is bleeding.
Arise teachers, arise teachers, arise!!!! Let every teacher support the #FixGES agenda,” his post concluded.
