Ms Onumah spoke to UN Information Officer Cynthia Prah in Accra about her professional journey. Here are the excerpts:
What is your name and where do you teach?
I am Rebecca Onumah. I teach at the University of Winneba in Central Region, Ghana.
How long have you been a teacher?
Continuously for the past 24 years, except for the four years I was in college.
And I understand you won an award. What award was that?
It was the Overall Best Teacher in Esikuma Odoben Brakwa District in 2004.
What have you been teaching?
I teach French, pre-Tech, Science, Fanti, Social Studies, and English.
What led you into teaching?
I am from a village. I completed secondary school with good grades, but I didn’t get any support to go to university. Then my Junior High School teacher advised that I go to a teacher training college where I would receive an allowance. He even took me for the interview, and I was successful. I have realized that although the salary is small, there is the opportunity to impact lives.
I teach in a small community; sometimes, you meet a student who may not have a good chance in life, and you try and change them. I remember a boy who almost stopped schooling until I met his parents and, together, we changed him. I am happy knowing that at least I’d done something good for his life.
And how would you describe your experience so far?
I’d say awesome and very interesting. People say I have patience. When I came to this school, the then Head of Department put me in charge of classes with many stubborn students because I have the patience to teach them.
Sometimes we converse like friends until the evening when they leave for their homes. Other times, I would be standing by the roadside, and somebody would just run and hug me - a mother of a student expressing appreciation. That makes teaching interesting.
What are you most proud of?
Seeing my students moving further on the educational ladder, and not becoming wayward, and they're getting something out of what I taught them. When they use the pieces of advice I give them to solve problems makes me proud.
And do you have any regrets about becoming a teacher?
No. But if it’s about remuneration or opportunities for further studies, those hardly work out. That’s when you say, ‘Okay if I were not a teacher, probably things would've been easier.’ Apart from that, looking at the joy and the way students interact—sometimes they ask if I have ever fallen sick—it’s beautiful. I think I was born to be a teacher. I don't regret it.
What are your enjoyable moments in school?
When you teach, the way some students relate with you in the classroom. Some ask questions or provide answers that are just so funny. That's very interesting. You go to the class, and you are so proud to teach.
What are the challenges you have faced so far in teaching?
It’s indiscipline, especially lately. It’s a nationwide problem. Good rules are set to let the students move in the right direction. But when you ask them to follow the rules, some of them think you’re unnecessarily tough on them. Some will even leave school because of that. Still, you want to groom and direct them in the correct way, and you want to instill in them the right values so that when they leave school and face challenges, they will appreciate how you impacted them.
The other challenge is lack of adequate funding. In this technology-driven world, you wish to use technology to aid in teaching, but you do not have it. The resources are not there. It can be frustrating.
How do you address these challenges?
We try to provide extra classes for the children. For example, recently, teaching the final year students, I get up as early as 6:00am to meet them. They will tell you comprehending math lessons in the afternoon is difficult, so I meet them from 6:00 am to 8:00 am, before breakfast. Extra interventions help.
Regarding indiscipline, I have made up my mind that what is right is right; I will continue to enforce disciple because they will appreciate my effort in the future.
On resources, once in a while, like recently, they gave us a projector. It is not adequate for all the classes, but we were able to divide the students into groups so all of them can have access at different times. We try to be innovative. It is clear more support is needed.
If you can change one thing in education, what would it be?
Except maybe for about two weeks during the Christmas period, we are working throughout the year. So I would change the system to make it more appealing to teachers.
What message would you like to send to other teachers in Africa and the rest of the world?
I want to say that teachers, no matter the situation, should see themselves as agents of change in society. They should do the best they can to change the lives of students who will in turn change society—Africa and the world at large.
