Education Director who caned teacher apologizes

The Western Regional Director of Education, Enyonam Afi Amefugah, who allegedly caned a Class 2 female teacher of Well-Road Methodist School at Sekondi in front of her pupils, has apologized for her action.

The female teacher, Eva Mensah, was purportedly caned by the director for whipping some of the pupils, who showed up in class late to write an examination last Wednesday.

According to information gathered, the regional director was driving to her office when she spotted the teacher caning the pupils in front of the classroom.

Ms Amefugah, who was purportedly not enthused about the alleged action by the female teacher, stopped and went to question the teacher about her action.

She reportedly took the cane and lashed the teacher in her palm in retaliation.

However, speaking to journalists last Friday, Ms Afi Amefugah indicated that she was sorry for what she did and that her action was impulsive.

“My first port of call should have been my Metro Director to find out whether the policy of not caning in the schools had not been made known to the teachers. But I went to the class not as a director but as a mother,” she indicated.

“How would I cane a teacher, knowing very well that caning in schools is prohibited? How would I correct a wrong, repeating the same wrong? l cannot cane my teacher when I am a very strong advocate for the abolishing of caning.

“I therefore, emphatically state that I did not cane the teacher and the teacher herself can attest to this.”

Narrating how the incident happened, Ms Eva Mensah said that on that fateful day, some boys of the class reported late to school “and so as a class teacher I questioned why they were late. Without giving any tangible reasons, I started hitting the legs of the pupils with a cane. All of a sudden, I saw a woman approaching.

“In fact, I didn’t know she was the education director. She asked why I was hitting the children with the cane and I said I was playing with them,” she explained.

She continued, “But the director insisted that what she saw could not be a joke and collected the cane from me and caned me in the palm.

“In fact, I was hurt initially because the children laughed at me, but now I have forgiven the director.”