A Senior Lecturer of the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr Samuel Kwesi Nkansah, has expressed worry about the new breed of teachers in the country who get so engrossed with WhatsApp and Facebook during school hours, at the expense of the child’s education.
“Majority of teachers come to the classroom, and they will not read but what they only know is ignoring their school kids and Whatsapping which is not proper”, the University fumed.
He, therefore, admonished the teachers to embrace the culture of reading and pay attention to the needs of children who are at risk of being failures and therefore require their timely intervention and support when it is clear that excellent classroom instruction is not enough.
At the 4th edition of Opanyin Kobbah Acquah memorial reading competition for early grade pupils in Anomabo on the theme “Creating a Reading Culture for Independent Literacy: The Role of the Early Grade Teacher”, Dr Kwesi Nkansah affirmed the view that reading is key to achieving a substantial degree of functional literacy.
He urged the teachers to work actively with the parents and guardians of their school kids to encourage reading at home.
Dr Kwesi Nkansah condemned politicians who undermined the contributions of teachers and vowed to fight any politician who would speak against teachers.
“I have been a teacher all my life, and I have come this far through the work of teachers, and I have realized that teachers are no mean people that anybody at all in whichever capacity should speak against”, he stated.
“I do not believe that we measure the wealth of the person by the money he or she has as well as his or her contributions to humanity, and that’s what teachers stand for”, he added.
“It doesn’t matter how much teachers receive at the end of the month, but what matters is the contributions to humanity because nobody achieves any success in this life without the teacher, and that must be recognized”, he stressed.