TEACHERS DESERVE BETTER!* RE: KWAME A-PLUS AND NPP

*TEACHERS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES*
ACCRA – GHANA

Wednesday 5th October 2016
PRESS RELEASE!

*TEACHERS DESERVE BETTER!*
RE: KWAME A-PLUS AND NPP

*“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”* ― Henry Adams

We raise our voices in unison with the rest of the world today to celebrate teachers and indeed the noblest profession of teaching.

As eloquently intimated by Henry Adams and quoted above, the influence of the teacher in all spheres of our national development (life) cannot be over-emphasized.

Teachers Without Boundaries is an amalgamation of teachers from all walks of life which has been in existence since April 2013 with a core identity as professionals with critical influence on society and has a common purpose of facilitating strong network among teachers to go the extra mile in making a different in our communities.

Our attention has been drawn to a lyrical content of a political song, Aben Be Bom, done by a hip-life musician Kwame A-Plus in which he makes some very disparaging remarks about teachers vis-à-vis the teaching profession.

In the said song, there is a line that goes like (we paraphrase and translate) “how on earth has Teacher Kofi Adams also gets money to build a house?”
While we have absolutely no proof or otherwise of the allegation against the personality so referred to in this lyric, we feel very bastardized, humiliated, insulted and denigrated as teachers, if the notion is that we are practicing a good for nothing profession.

Kwame A-Plus has earned a reputation for his advocacy for social justice, and as educators, we appreciate his efforts but he cannot use a wrong to right a wrong thus making the noble profession of teaching, a laughing stock in the eyes of the right thinking Ghanaians in order to prosecute his parochial agenda.

What is more worrying is the wholehearted acceptance of the song by the leadership of the largest opposition political party in Ghana, New Patriotic Party, which claims to believe in the prosperity of the Ghanaian irrespective of his/her occupation.

So we ask;
*Is Kwame A-Plus and the NPP seeking to tell the Ghanaian teacher that, he/she is pursuing as accursed profession which one cannot make a meaningful life out of?*

*Is it the position of the NPP and Kwame A-Plus that no matter how hard we work as teachers, we would never be able to put up decent accommodation for ourselves and our families?*

*Does the NPP, a political party that is seeking the mandate of the Ghanaian, including teachers, truly have the welfare of teachers and by extension all Ghanaians at heart or it is just the usual political campaign rhetoric?*

Action, they say, speaks louder than words.

We use this occasion of the International Day for Teachers, to demand an *unqualified apology* from both Kwame A-Plus and the Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo led opposition NPP for the harm done us, and further demand that the musician Kwame A-Plus does a *“rephrase/remix” of that particular line/lyric which has insulted the intelligence, integrity and the very human value of the teacher.*

We await patiently the response to these demands of ours, as we consider our next step of action in the interest of social justice and the respect for human dignity; *“as hunters learn to shoot without missing so do birds also learn to fly without perching, and vice versa.”*

*“Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.”* – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Long Live Teachers of Ghana!
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana!
Long Live the Respect for Human Dignity!

Signed:
Spokespersons
EDWARD XORSE DOGBATSE
0243915191

ROBERT MELORWO AHIABENU
0242357975