Author: The Nation

The sustained and aggressive campaigns against child molestation, abuse, and gender-based violence have unintended consequences. ESTHER PIUS EKONG writes they have created an environment where the mere presence of a man in a classroom is viewed with suspicion and anticipated assault. The writer warns that if we want men back in classrooms, we must restore dignity to the profession, protect teachers legally and institutionally, rebuild trust between parents and educators, recognising the need for balance not exclusion.

There was a time when the classroom was a balanced ecosystem. In my formative years, most of the subjects that shaped my intellect and discpline were taught by the male gender – mathematics, social studies, government, physical and health education, introductory technology, integrated science, computer science, fine art, Christian Religious Studies, Literature-in-English, Economics, Music, and Agricultural Science – these were domains occupied largely by male teachers.

One of them, the music teacher, who composed the school anthem, was so passionately invested in his craft that he would climb tables mid-way, not for theatrics, but to drive home the sacred precision of musical keys and rhythm. Another, the agricultural science teacher, was the only one at that time, who authored a textbook dedicated to the subject. These men were not merely teachers; they were custodians of discipline, models of authority, and quiet architects of our future. They co-existed with the female teachers excellently.

Beyond the classroom, leadership roles followed the same pattern. The principal, administrative officer, bursar, guidance counsellor, and librarian were all male staff. Unsurprisingly, the security personnel and school drivers were also men. Authority, structure, and responsibility were clearly defined. That was then. Today, the reverse is not only the case, it has become the norm.

The reality check

 I recently visited my alma mater. After exchanging pleasantries with my former English teacher, now the school principal, I casually asked how many male teachers are currently on the staff list. She responded thus: “Men don’t want to be teachers anymore.” Her face clouded with concern. Then counting aloud. “One … two … three”. After a brief silence, she added, “With the gateman and the driver that makes five”. Five male figures in the entire school. This is not the statistics to be glossed over. It is a dangerous signal. A system once sustained by balance has tipped dangerously to one side. Is this not a threat to the very survival of male representation in education?

Classroom fears

At a recent stakeholders’ meeting attended by ministry officials, non-governmental organisations, lawyers, teachers, and education personnel, a teacher stood up and spoke with visible exhaustion: “Teachers are afraid to discipline students. We are scared of being beaten or worse, killed. Parents now come to school to threaten or physically assault teachers. Many of us have lost interest. Some have resigned. Others simply look away from bad behaviour. Schools are no longer allowed to flog or punish students”.

This is not an exaggeration. Just this year, reports have emerged of male teachers being murdered by their students. Female teachers, on the other hand, face a different, but equally horrifying reality such as rape and sexual violence. And yet, society continues to chant the mantra: “There is decadence in the education system”. What is your contribution to the rot that has produced maggots? How do we expect improvement while systematically-dismantling the very people, who are also entrusted with discipline, guidance and moral instruction?

The questions

‘‘Before I proceed further, I implore you to spare 10 minutes and visit schools around your environment, public or private, urban or rural. You will find institutions with no male teachers at all, not even as support staff. Here are the questions: Is the salary too inadequate for a man expected to provide for a family? Is the social ridicule too heavy? Is the campaign against sexual abuse amongst school children affecting the employment of male teachers? Is the fear of false accusations too real? Is the anxiety around physical interaction with children too paralysing? These are not rhetorical questions. They are genuine concerns that demand collective answers. Teaching was once a noble profession. Today, it has been reduced by parents, students, and society to a position of ridicule and suspicion. Yet, teaching remains the profession that moulds every other profession. The contradiction is staggering.

Unintended consequences of campaigns against abuse

The sustained and aggressive campaigns against child molestation, abuse, and gender-based violence have unintended consequences. They have created an environment where the mere presence of a man in a classroom is viewed with suspicion and anticipated assault. Female children, no doubt, who are mostly primary victims of sexual abuse in schools, are now heavily protected and rightly so. But in a disturbing twist, male children are increasingly becoming victims of sexual abuse, sodomy, and exploitation. This reality is often ignored, buried beneath selective outrage. Better still, by the notion that a male child cannot be abused. Recently, an image circulated of a 16-year-old boy involved in a sexual relationship with his 33-year-old female teacher. The society laughed, memes were made and afterwards the outrage muted. However, it is a conversation for another day.

The broken chain: Home to school

School is not an isolated institution. It is a continuation of the home. Philosophers were right when they said that, “The home is the first school of every child”. Yet economic pressure has forced many mothers to resume to work weeks, sometimes days after childbirth. The biological bond is being outsourced. The child wakes up and instead of the mother’s warmth, they are met with cold glass and extracted milk delivered by a stranger to their mouth. By the time these children reach the age of teenager, parents are shocked by their rebellion.

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Why should the child listen to a parent’s voice? That voice was absent during the “golden hours or age” of development. A stranger stole it or was graciously dashed to a stranger. The child grows without parental authority, emotional security and balance is fractured, frustrated and fluctuated. When the final blow lands, the child is sent to boarding school. Years later, the parents complain: “This child is delinquent. He does not listen. But why would he when the authority, love, voice, and care that should have been firmly planted during his formative years were outsourced and lost?

 Why the men left the classroom

Financial pressure, social expectations, and political agitation for equality have reshaped the labour market. But one fear stands above all others: the fear of accusation. Many schools quietly avoid employing male teachers to escape potential allegations of molestation or defilement. Parents deliberately withdraw their children from schools with male teachers. Proprietors, driven by survival, dismiss the few men they employed. Ironically, this occurs in a world still largely governed by men.

A man, by both societal and divine design, is a symbol of authority. Authority, however, must be taught, guided, and responsibly-exercised. When young boys are denied mentorship, structure, discipline and guidance, both at home and in school, it becomes destructive to their growth and development. The female child is often coached on navigating life’s challenges. The male child is left to “figure it out”. When authority is not trained, it mutates into aggression, rebellion and abuse. What we are witnessing is not mere coincidence, but consequence.

A silent gender war

Across sectors, the pattern repeats. In some government parastatals, male presence is almost non-existent, except as gatemen or messengers. In banks, men stand at entrances distributing forms or withdrawal slips. In the legal profession, the imbalance is growing. Our former male teachers are now commercial cyclists, tricycle drivers, bus drivers, security guards and in more tragic cases, inmates of correctional centres. These centres are filled predominantly with the male gender. Survival when options are stripped away is not rebellion, but desperation.

The social aftershock

As male absence grows in both home and school, other social vices and new patterns intensify. Homosexuality, lesbianism and bisexual are increasing, not merely as identity expressions, but as consequences of prolonged gender isolation and non-coexistence. My friend and I saw a young man, who had waist beads on, with tattoos on most parts of his body, walking seductively to a car. It was so irritating, nauseating and sickening. My friend exclaimed, “It is finished, they have started competing with us”. Very funny, right? But that is the reality. A female only school staffed exclusively by women becomes fertile ground for unchecked same-sex experimentation. The same applies to male only institutions. When balance is removed, extremes flourish. So, we must ask: How do we manage this? There is no male authority at home, none in school. Where is the balance? Under no circumstance should the importance of men in education be underestimated. Yet, they already are. So, I ask you directly and deliberately: What is the solution?

 An appeal

If we want men back in classrooms, we must restore dignity to the profession, protect teachers legally and institutionally, rebuild trust between parents and educators, recognising the need for balance not exclusion. Treat male teachers with fairness and respect, and provide incentives to augment their salaries. Only then can education begin to thrive again. Let there be peaceful coexistence amongst male and female teachers. That is the way to go.

•Ekong, a legal practitioner, can be reached via, idangbenedicta@gmail.com