A dangerous trend among school teachers

A recent report published in theNovember 25,2017 edition of Daily Trust on Saturday revealed a very disturbing trend where teachers in many parts of the country have become perpetrators of immorality, which they were trained to suppress in their students. A teacher is conscientiouslya trustee and professionallya guardian over his pupils or students as the case may be. If Islam and some other revealed religionsforbid sexual relationships outside ofmarriage;and if all educational systems all over the world frowns at and classifiesromantic associations between a teacher and his female students as unethical; it would be double tragedy if the victim of sexual abuse is a student to the offender.

Many, including this writer, see it as the worst form of betrayal for teachers to prey on their female students. Wal-iyadhu Bi-llah!Sexual molestation of a student by her teacher is a sin against Allah’s injunction; a disgrace to the shameless teacher; and a crime against many fronts including the family, the society, and humanity. Sexual abuse of a female student by her teacher is the worst embarrassment to the teaching profession and the nastiest scandal that anyone who truly professes teaching as a career could orchestrate.

There have been several reported cases, in recent times, of teachers putting their female students in the family way. In Niger state, for instance, the vice principal of Government Day secondary School, Tunga-Minna, Mohammed Kuyizhi appeared in March 2017 before the state’s Child Right Protection Agency over the pregnancy of a 16-year-old student. The victim said the accused had carnal knowledge of her three times in his office; adding that the accused vice principal gave her between N50 and N100 as transport money each time he had an affair with her. The irresponsible vice principal admitted committing the act and promised to take responsibility for the pregnancy. Kuyizhi was a close friend of the victim’s guardian and frequented the latter’s residence before the incident.

In March 2016, a 28-year-old school teacher in the FCT identified as Goddy was arrested by the police in Kubwa for allegedly raping an 18-year-old student he was coaching to sit for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB) examinations. The teacher reportedly confessed to the crime that he unlawfully had carnal knowledge of thefemale student.Subhana-llah! In Bauchi state, two teachers at a primary school in Dusten-Taushi reportedly gang-raped a six-year-old female pupil in March 2017.

In Lagos State, two male teachers of a Lagos State Government Secondary School in Epe were declared wanted in July 2017 after they serially raped 10 female students of the school. The teachers were exposed when one of the affected students reported her case to the school after she was diagnosed to have been infected with Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs). It was then other female students who were victims of the same illicit act confirmed that they were also raped by the same teachers on different occasions. 

Similarly, an 8-year-old female pupil was raped in July 2016 by a 46-year-old primary school teacher in Yobe state at his residence.In July 2016, a 9-year-old female pupil was also raped by a 33-year-old teacher, HamisuGaladima, of Nassarawa Annex Primary School in Katsina.Likewise, a primary school headmaster, Sule Yusuf, was remanded in Katsina prison in August 2017 for allegedly engaging in homosexuality with a 4-year-old pupil in his office at Salihawa primary school,Tunga-Zuri village in Musawa local Government Area of Katsina. LaaHaulaWaLaaQuwwatailla Bi-llah!

In Edo state, a 47-year-old teacher, RotimiOlayemi was sentenced in March 2016 to a prison term of four years for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old female student in his office. The prosecutor said Olayemi allegedly invited the victim into his office and defiled her by fondling, kissing and inserting his finger into her on May 26,2014. The accused,who was apparently married, is a father of three and was an English teacher at King of Kings College, Benin. Also in March 2016, BabatundeIbitoye, a school proprietor in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Ekiti High Court for raping a 10-year-old female pupil of his school.      

Students who are naturally in their youthful ages are potential future leaders of the country. When a female school girl as a victim of sexual molestation by her teacher tactlesslybecomes pregnant, she suffers many damages. Besides the stigma that comes along with such an act, it terminates (in most cases) the educational career of the victim; killing her dreams of becoming an achiever that looks forward to contributing meaningfully to the country’s political, intellectual and socio-economic development. If the wicked teacher’s act was a rape, the victim in most instances suffers injuries. Inna lillahiWa Inna IlayhiRaj’un!

The catalogue of cases recounted above in addition to several other unreported incidents, perhaps in their hundreds, are huge and catastrophic enough for government and Nigerians (as individuals and NGO or CSO groups) to declare war against this set of randy school teachers who seem to have lost their heads and souls.Except for a few cases where some of them were sentenced to various prison terms, many of them are left to go scot-free without prosecution or losing their jobs. Teachers who betray the confidence of parents who entrusted their female children as pupils or students into their hands are unfit to be in the school system; as instructors or administrators. While I call on federal and state lawmakers in the country to propose and pass relevant laws on this negative but dangerous trend among school teachers, the police as the prosecuting agency, must do their job properly in order to get offenders convicted.

In addition to administering competency tests on prospective and serving teachers which is though the newest but imperative ‘litmus test’ in the teaching profession at the basic level of education in contemporary Nigeria, one is prompted by the crazy rush of teachers for the carnal knowledge of their female students to suggest that Teachers’ Competency Tests (TCTs) should henceforth involve a section for psychiatric investigation.

Because most sexual abuses by teachers took place in their offices, government and proprietors of private schools are urged to install CCTV cameras in teachers’ offices to check criminally-minded tutors that have lost their sense of morality. May Allah (SWT) guide school teachers to see themselves as responsible trustees, not betrayers; and as models, not saboteurs; over their students; amin,