The Vice President’s Wife Blasts Headmistress Who Asked Government For Chalk: So Not Just The Elected Leaders Display Arrogance, Now We Have To Take It From The Unelected Ones Too?

I am very disappointed in the second lady for the comments she reportedly passed towards a school who were doing nothing more than asking the government to do their job.

Mrs Matilda Amissah Arthur was in the Eastern Region, presenting five computers to the Kukurantumi Presby Primary School. The headmistress of the school, when expressing gratitude for the gesture, asked the second lady to carry to the powers that be a plea; that they needed chalk and teacher’s note books to facilitate their work.

For some reason this ticked off the second lady, causing her to pass some very unfortunate comments. Not only did she display a shallow grasp of issues, she also showed a severe disconnect from the reality of the conditions of possibly the largest single bloc of civil servants in the country- teachers.

“The Head teacher has shocked me…she said you lack chalk and log books…I am very shocked that you are today asking me about chalk…how much is a box of chalk…I won’t give you chalk today, I won’t give you chalk tomorrow.

“Secondly, you talk about log books and school uniforms, I think we have spoilt you so parents don’t want to even buy school uniforms…head teacher eii, find another means of helping yourself….

“I will even feel shy to go to Accra and call on the government to come and provide chalk…it would be very difficult for me to do so….”

“…Design a database of old students of the school and together with the PTA and teachers, provide your own chalk…,” she said, according to adomonline.

This government has failed in providing the basic needs for a thriving economy, and managed to remain largely apathetic to the complaints of Ghanaians throughout. They are our elected leaders however, and we have no choice but to suffer the consequences of our choices.

But for the second lady, who only has that position because of her husband, to display such arrogance and cluelessness is virtually unpardonable. I do not know what she was doing before becoming second lady, but going around the country to disrespect the hard work of those keeping this country running despite working under the draconian conditions caused by her husband’s party is not what she is supposed to be doing now.

Maybe being given this much power has gotten to her head.

Government is supposed to provide for government schools, I do not think it takes a rocket scientist to reach that conclusion. So felling shy to go and ask for chalk is either here nor there. And she seems perplexed that the school needs chalk, when under our system it is perhaps the most used substance in our education until you hit the tertiary level.

And she is behaving like a school needs one box of chalk to run. She is betraying a failure to grasp the materials needed to run a school. And if chalk is so inexpensive as she claims, why then can government not supply it, to the extent that head teachers would then have to petition for it, only to get insulted for their troubles?

Teachers are one of the most underpaid groups of people in this country, yet they hold one of the most crucial jobs, which is securing the future of our nation. Yet being disrespected and ignored by successive governments is the norm for them.

Besides, even if the school was supposed to provide for themselves, the headmistress was petitioning for help. Is that the best response to a petition?

We have enough bullsh**t to deal with from our elected leaders. We do not need anymore from those to whom we have not handed any official power.