The misfortune of Juliana

Victor Issaka Kpandja

(EI Africa Regional Office)

Education is an instrument which enables us to build societies. The essence of education to the best of my knowledge is to promote values pertaining to skills, peace, development, justice, equity, prosperity etc. It is in this sense that it commonly said: “Education is key to development.”

It is therefore recommendable that every child be given a chance to learn, and, equally, every teacher be able to teach without fearing his or her workplace, so as to bring out his or her best.

From my perspective as Professional Assistant in my organisation, I realised that there are so many challenges to making education what we wish it to be.

One of these challenges which is negatively impacting on our schools, is School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV).

Like many people, before I had the opportunity to take part in the SRGBV Peer Learning Sessions, I thought of SRGBV as sexual harassment or rape perpetrated by a male teacher against a female student. Through participation in the peer learning sessions, I discovered other realities. Of cases, where SRGBV was perpetuated by a student against a fellow student or by a teacher against his or her colleague. SRGBV is also about corporal punishment or language abuse.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially SDG4 calls on governments to promote an inclusive and quality Education. I believe all the governments are committed to work toward the achievement of the SDG4, by 2030. Moreover, in Africa there is an agenda called Continental Education

Strategy for Africa, adopted in 2015, whereby all the African Governments pledged to achieve quality education.

Many questions now cross my mind: “is it really possible to achieve the inclusive and quality education, when some students and/or teachers are scared to be raped or sexually harassed? How can we achieve the inclusive and quality education, when some students are afraid to go to school, because they want to avoid teachers lashing, caning or insulting them, because they did not agree to be their girlfriends?”

I think that it is crucial to empower the EI affiliate unions, to become aware of SRGBV and to fight against SRGBV in their communities, as well as in their school environments. From my experience, there is no way we could achieve an inclusive and quality education without putting a stop to SRGBV. To illustrate some of the challenges relating to SRGBV I would like to share a story with you.

There was a Head teacher of a Junior Secondary School in my district, called Mr Anani. One day, a video of Mr Anani, the Head teacher, having sex with one of his students, named Juliana, went viral on social media. Juliana was a tender girl of 14, from a very poor family, who could hardly afford food to the household.

Mr Anani, whose family and children were staying in another district, used to request the assistance of Juliana in cooking, sweeping, cleaning and doing other house chores. Mr Anani, in turn had been rewarding Juliana with some money, food and gifts in kind. The parents of Juliana were aware and proud of the head teacher for all the gifts to their daughter.

One Saturday morning, while Juliana was sweeping the room of Mr Anani, he suddenly jumped on the girl and started touching her young small breasts. The girl tried to shout and escape, but he promised to give her a subsequent amount of money and also offer her a bicycle. This deal interested the girl, and she availed herself to the head teacher. The head teacher set his phone on the Video Recorder and had sex with Juliana while recording the action. He gave money to the girl and told her that he will not hesitate to kill her, in case she reports the act to anyone.

Unfortunately for the head teacher, one day, his phone had to be sent for repairs, and the repairer saw the short pornographic video and shared it throughout the WhatsApp platform.

On viewing this video, members of the Teachers’ Council summoned Mr Anani and questioned him. After Mr Anani acknowledged having sex with the girl and that the video had been recorded by himself, the Council dismissed him, as he has flouted the Code of Conduct. The Ministry of Education supported the decision of the Teachers’ Council. Mr Anani was simply fired.

Teachers who were very close to Mr Anani got furious about his dismissal. They approached members of the Council, the Ministry of Education as well as their union leaders. Their objective was to get Mr Anani back to school. One of the arguments from these teachers was that Mr Anani did not rape the girl. They intimated that the teaching profession is not rewarding, and that therefore having sexual intercourse with a student is compensation for a profession that has little rewards.

I drew the attention of the management of my office to this case. I was then requested to draft a letter to some unions in the country, so as to get more information, before we could assist them in this matter. The letter was sent, and a meeting was organised between some of the union leaders and my office. The leaders informed us that the teachers who are against the dismissal of the head teacher are threatening to withdraw from the unions, as no action had been put in place, to defend Mr Anani. Moreover, they accused the union leaders for conniving with the Ministry of Education to fire Mr Anani.

All the teachers who supported Mr Anani became targets of insults, wherever they pass or find themselves. In short, they became the devil to be combatted at all cost.

In the meeting, we urged the union leaders to organise a press conference to publicly condemn Mr Anani’s act and make it clear that he did not set a model to the other teachers. We also asked union leaders to explain that though their role as unions is to protect and defend their members, they cannot condone wrong, harmful and criminal behaviour, therefore, Mr Anani, as a disgrace of teachers, must not be defended. It was after this press conference that the community resumed their trust in and respect for the teachers.

We also had the opportunity, together with some of the union leaders to meet the furious teachers supporting Mr Anani. We explained and drew their attention that by law, this was a crime of statutory rape since Juliana’s consent as a 14- year old girl, to have sex with the head teacher, is null and void. Besides this Mr

Anani’s responsibility was to educate the girl as a good father and not sleep with her and make a recording.

Deeply traumatized, embarrassed and ashamed to go back to school, Juliana spent almost two weeks at home. She lost her interest in school and kept herself indoors.

Despite all the efforts of Juliana’ parents to convince her to go back to school, Juliana was reluctant and even aggressive. She does not know what awaits her next. Following the encouragement and advice of her mother, Juliana became confident and accepted the idea of going back to school. However, she indicated that she will never go back to her current school. Juliana was sent to another school in the district. Unfortunately, she was not motivated and her performance dropped drastically.

This situation urges EI Africa to embark more on a programme to empower all the EI affiliates in the Region to stand against SRGBV.

Some unions had the opportunity to participate in the SRGBV sessions, during the meetings organised by the African Women in Education (AWEN), which is the Women Desk of EI Africa. But I think, this is not enough. To be able to reach out on all the EI affiliates in the Africa Region and build on their capacities to combat SRGBV, a standalone budget ought to be made available for the SRGBV programme. This will enable the Regional Office, for example, to create more awareness on the issue of SRGBV, and assist unions which do not have a Code of Conduct to acquire one. It will also be our responsibility to encourage unions which have a code of conduct, but do not use it, to start using it. I believe that there is hope to see this budget made available, because Education International has made the issue of SRGBV one of the priority areas of its agenda.

There cannot be quality education as long as there is SBGBV. To have quality education implies having quality teachers, meaning teachers who are trained, conscious of their professional responsibilities, and about their role as mentors and parent figures to the children they teach. Another condition which will help reduce the rate of SRGBV in our schools, is to have a quality environment. It is also my belief that schools should include learning and teaching material, to enable learners to know their rights. Most times students do not know that they have the full right to say no to a teacher who invites her/him to their houses, or when this teacher confidentially touches any of their private parts.

FACILITATOR’S WRITINGS

Image credit: Gender At Work