This year, I have seen more advertisements for teacher recruitment, especially from private schools than at any other time I can remember.
On one hand, I am happy for the job seekers who find these opportunities. On the other hand, I feel for the proprietors and proprietresses who are constantly searching for replacements. Too often, teachers leave abruptly in the middle of a term, sometimes without notice, leaving classrooms stranded.
Some will argue that school owners deserve it. After all, when they decide to dismiss a teacher, it is often done with remarkable speed, sometimes without due process or empathy. But two wrongs do not make a right.
When teachers leave without notice and schools dismiss staff without fairness, it is the children who pay the price. Something is fundamentally wrong.
In many private schools, teachers work without appointment letters, SSNIT contributions, or meaningful welfare packages. A teacher can dedicate five years to a school and still be told not to return the following term because enrollment has dropped.
How do you build a future on that kind of uncertainty? Then there is the issue of pay.
Some graduate teachers earn between GH¢800 and GH¢1,200 while teaching multiple subjects, marking many exercise books, serving as class teachers, supervising extracurricular activities, and counselling students. For many, the workload and the compensation do not match.
Yet the irony is hard to ignore. There is abundance on the streets, yet scarcity in the classroom. Why? Perhaps the answer is simple: graduates are not merely looking for employment; they are looking for dignity, a workplace where they are respected, paid on time, and given a measure of security.
Private schools must recognise that teachers are their greatest asset, not their cheapest labour. Contracts matter. SSNIT matters. Timely salaries matter. Even modest welfare incentives can make a significant difference.
Teachers, too, have a responsibility. If you must leave, leave professionally. Do not punish children for the shortcomings of management.
If we fail to fix this broken relationship between teachers and private schools, the “Teachers Wanted” posters and social media posts will continue multiplying while the quality of education quietly declines. Because two wrongs have never made a right.
