A former student of the Icodehs Islamic JHS where the Minister-designate for Fisheries, Mavis Hawa Koomson, was once a headmistress has revealed that she insisted on speaking English in the school when she headed the school.

The former student, identified as Alhaji Sterling on social media said that Ms Hawa Koomson rigorously enforced the speaking of English in the school and severely punished students who disobeyed the rules on the speaking of English.

Ms Hawa Koomson at her vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday explained that her lack of fluency in English is because English is not our mother tongue. Many on social media also defended her inability to express herself fluently on the basis that English is not our mother tongue.

But reacting to the news on social media, Alhaji Sterling said that Ms Hawa Koomson spared no one who spoke vernacular.

“Hawa Koomson was my headmistress at icodehs Islamic JHS at Kasoa and it’s very pathetic to see how she saying English is not our mother tongue… She enforced us to speak English any time we are at school.. punished us mercilessly at school whenever student speaks vernacular,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, some have argued that Hawa Koomson also demonstrated a lack of substance beyond her inability to speak English fluently and therefore, she is not fit to hold the office as Minister of Fisheries.