A single stroke of a teacher’s pen, a careless word written down decades ago. For some, it’s just a school record. For others, it’s a life sentence. This story you are about to read relates to the vetting of Prof Grace Ayensu-Danquah as Deputy Minister for Health and the message her former headmistress sent to the vetting committee (Parliamentary Appointments Committee).

This is a true-life story account:

Since yesterday’s vetting of Prof. Grace Ayensu-Danquah as Deputy Minister for Health, one revelation has left me shocked: the headmistress of Archbishop Porter Girls’ SHS at Fijai, Takoradi, in the Western region of Ghana, her former school, reportedly sent a confidential report to the Parliamentary Appointments Committee, describing her as an “inconsiderate and disrespectful student.”

But this is bigger than Prof. Ayensu—this is a mirror held up to our educational system. How many dreams have been crushed, how many bright futures destroyed because of the personal biases, grudges, and toxic power some teachers wield over students? When did education stop being about building character and start being about labeling students for life?

Do You Know How a Wicked Teacher’s Pen Becomes a Weapon Against Your Future? Keep Reading and Make Your Own Judgement.

When I was an assistant headteacher a few years ago, BNI officials often came to check the records of past students who wanted to join the security forces or certain institutions in Ghana. They examined their admission details, report cards, and information about their residence and character, and they captured these documents with their phones.

One day, I met a young man who had been dismissed from the Ghana Armed Forces training after officials conducted a background check at his former SHS. It turned out that the headmaster had written in his records that he was a thief and had been part of the students who stole school laptops during his time there.

According to the young man, however, he was actually among the students who caught those attempting to steal the school’s computers, as he was in the school’s cadet corps. Do you see how some teachers and headteachers can destroy people’s lives with false or careless reports?

We must ask ourselves: Should the character or behavior of a young student, formed in their teenage years, define the rest of their life? How many potential leaders, innovators, and nation-builders have been silenced because someone in authority hastily labeled them as “disrespectful” or “arrogant” instead of nurturing and guiding them?

READ: GES Reintroduces Parent Teacher Association (PTA) In Public Schools

If this report is anything to go by, it shows that some educators have forgotten their sacred duty—to shape minds, not destroy them. Should the words of one person, written decades ago, be used as a weapon against someone who has proven her worth and risen to serve her nation?

This is shameful and a dent in our educational system and our country.

Posted by Bismak Dotse Dzisenu