Assaulted teachers pacified with GHC500, phones, cloth, laptops

Some female teachers of the St. John's Primary School in Accra were assaulted by thugs

Teachers at St. John’s 1&2 Primary School at New Town, Accra, have each received an amount of GHS500 from the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije.

The donation follows attacks on some teachers of the school by cane- and knife-brandishing thugs, who besieged the school’s premises to avenge a 15-year-old class five female pupil, who was punished by one of the teachers on June 7.

The school was closed down temporarily for two weeks following the incident and on Wednesday June 22 when full classes resumed, Mr Vanderpuije made good his promise to compensate the teachers with cash, as some had complained of losing their monies and possessions during the skirmishes.

The Director of Budget of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Lydia Sackey, who made the donation on behalf of Mr Vanderpuije, told Accra FM: “We had discussions with the teachers and during that we realised some lost their monies; some, their phones; others needed to go to hospital, among others. So, today, the promise the mayor made to compensate those, who lost their monies, we will bring them money, those, who lost their phones, we will replace them with new ones, and we will give all of them some money, each person will be offered GHS500.”

She added that the 12 teachers of the school and a circuit supervisor from the Ghana Education Service (GES), who were assaulted, received the amount.

In addition, the MP for the Ayawaso Central, Henry Quartey, also offered 12 pieces of locally-manufactured fabric, a dozen smartphones, and five laptops to be distributed among the affected teachers.

He said he had met the mayor, circuit supervisor, assemblyman and other stakeholders on Friday June 17 to impress upon the teachers to return to school, while police carried out investigations.

Ms Catherine Sarpong Mensah, headmistress of the school, thanked Mr Vanderpuije and the MP for the love shown the school and its teachers and asked for God’s blessings. She assured that teachers would do their best to ensure the pupils received the best education.