By Prince TAMAKLOE
In a dimly lit classroom in Suhum, Madam Abena Yeboah starts her day not with Equations or Grammar lessons, but by wiping tears and calming distressed children.
“I trained to teach Mathematics, but now my mornings are spent consoling hungry students and solving problems far beyond the syllabus,” she lamented.
In rural districts like Suhum and Ayensuano in the Eastern Region, teachers are shouldering burdens far heavier than textbooks. With parental involvement dwindling, educators have become makeshift caregivers, counsellors and even providers for children grappling with poverty, migration and fractured homes.
Disappearing parents, disconnected homes
Economic hardship has forced many families into survival mode. Parents work dawn-to-dusk jobs, leaving little time for school meetings or homework help.
Others have migrated to cities, leaving children with elderly relatives who often lack the means or literacy to support education.
A single mother at Ayensuano, Akua Mensima, said: “I want to help my children with school, but I leave home before sunrise to sell at the market and return after dark. If I don’t work, we don’t eat”.
In communities where both time and resources are stretched thin, the responsibility to raise and mould children is gradually shifting from the family to the teacher.
Burnout in the classroom
For educators like Kwame Mensah, the changes are overwhelming. “It used to be a partnership and parents cared; but no more. They used to come to meetings; but now, we’re expected to handle everything – from feeding hungry students to addressing trauma from unstable homes, and then somehow still teach,” he said.
The pressure is mounting. Teachers are increasingly exhausted and emotionally drained. The demands of Ghana’s new standard-based curriculum (SBC), which requires detailed planning and delivery, are often sidelined by the immediate social and emotional needs of their students.
Classroom time is now divided between education and crisis management, leaving learning outcomes hanging in the balance.
A ray of hope
Despite the bleak picture, some changes are beginning to take root. Through targeted interventions such as ‘Savana Signatures’ – a rural youth in Ghana catching up on education project, communities are slowly beginning to re-engage with schools.
The project has conducted 45 community discussions involving over 850 parents and supported the formation of five Child Protection Committees.
Since its implementation, teachers in targeted schools report increased parental presence and a notable reduction in classroom stress.
“We didn’t realise how our absence was affecting our children,” one parent confessed after a sensitisation session. “Now, I try to attend meetings and check on their homework. It’s a small start, but it matters.”
Rebuilding the bridge
Education stakeholders are calling for stronger community-school partnerships. Suggestions include establishing active Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), organising family engagement days at schools, creating mentorship programmes for young or single parents and hosting public awareness campaigns to highlight the role of parents in education
“This isn’t about pointing fingers,” says a local education officer. “It’s about bringing parents back into the picture. Teachers can’t raise these children alone.”
Beyond the curriculum
As the day winds down in Ayensuano, Madam Abena finishes her lesson notes. Today, she has fed a student who hadn’t eaten any solid food in two days, comforted another with visible signs of neglect, and settled a dispute between siblings – all before starting her class.
“I love teaching,” she says. “But I can’t keep doing everything. No teacher can.”
Her voice, like that of many others, is not one of anger, but of quiet desperation because when the bell rings in Suhum and Ayensuano, it doesn’t just summon children to class, it calls an entire community to action.
