Sexual Relationship between Teachers and students: The cause and the way forward

“All professionals can boast but the teacher taught them all”. That’s a beautiful quote and how true it is. No matter the your profession, you got there with the help of a teacher. However, the rate at which teachers, especially their male counterparts have illicit affairs with their students is unbecoming of the teaching profession. Am a student teacher who will soon become a professional teacher. Nevertheless, I have had some years experience in the teaching field to know how students look up to their teachers.
They try to copy your lifestyle ; the way you walk, talk, write and certain habits whether good or bad. A JHS headmaster was in the news recently for having an affair with his now SHS student. Three SHS teachers have had their appointment terminated by Ghana Education Service for same offense. In as much as I am ashamed by their actions and condemn any affair whatsoever between students and teachers, we have to also look at where this began. The cause The teachers in our basic schools and the secondary schools went to the tertiary to receive their training. It was common to see lecturers engaging in illicit affair with students. Some lecturers deliberately fail students knowing very well that such students will come to them and they use that opportunity to demand sex from you for better grades. The problem here is that, there are no mechanisms in place to check these activities of lecturers and so victims are not able to talk about it to anyone. Students, however, see these going on without anything being done about it so consider it normal. They also practice same when they get posted to their various schools to teach. I will limit myself to Colleges of Education in Ghana.
This institution is one of the most poorly supervised but the authorities in this country know very well it’s in the hands of students in this institution that we entrust our younger ones. It is therefore no wonder that teachers at the basic level especially keep having illicit affairs with these minors and at worse impregnate them. Most tutors in the colleges are a law unto themselves. They have the capacity to fail or pass you. And because of that, there is always the issue of conflict of interest, bias in the awarding of marks, etc. They are trainers of professional teachers and must act in a professional manner for the student teacher to emulate. They, however, betray their position of trust. Every year, some innocent girls’ future is destroyed as a result of the unprofessionalism of some teachers. Most parents whose wards fall victim do not report such teachers and if they do, the case is lost in between and such teachers go scot free. Sometimes the only punishment they get is transfer to another school where they only get to continue their immoral behavior. The way forward All hope is not lost though. There is more that can be done to curb this issue. It is high time stringent measures are put in place to check the various Colleges of Education. A platform should also be created for students to report lecturers whose habit it is to ask them for sex in exchange for good grades and such lecturers dealt with accordingly. Most times students fail to report them for fear of intimidation. The College authorities must do well to allay such fear of reporting teachers who cross the line professionalism. Laws on sexual harassment in the education setting should prohibit all sexual relationships between teachers and students in the same educational institution. An educator must be dismissed if he or she is found guilty of…having a sexual relationship with a learner of the school where he or she is employed. The dismissal should be mandatory whether or not there was consent. Such zero-tolerance policies are consistent with many laws that criminalize adults’ sexual relationships with minors generally. Because sexual harassment in the educational setting affects victims who often are minors and perpetrators are in a position of particular authority and trust, consensual sexual relationships should not be protected. This highlights the fact that legislative language addressing harassment in the workplace, where consensual relationships are protected, cannot simply be transposed into the educational setting. There is consensus that zero-tolerance for sexual relationships between students and teachers is a best practice for sexual harassment law and policies in educational settings. Education International, an organization of teachers unions from around the world, has encouraged its affiliates “to condemn such breaches of ethical standards clearly and publicly,” noting that zero-tolerance of these relationships is the only workable policy solution.

  The importance of trust in the teacher-student relationship I will end by saying that as teachers we are in a position of trust; parents entrust the education of their wards to us knowing fully well how we can guide them to be responsible citizens in the future. We should therefore, never compromise on our duty and destroy the future of our young ones. It is only then that when you hear that “All professions can boast but the teacher taught them all”, you can sit back and feel proud of yourself.