How a headmaster described his former student as ‘ungrateful and disrespectful’ in a testimonial

The headmaster, in answering a question on the character of the student said he was very disrespectful and ungrateful and that he cannot vouch for him in any way.

The affected student, Isaac Kwaku Essien, had gone to the headmaster to obtain the testimonial for the purpose of travelling abroad. Unbeknownst to him, his head teacher, without warning, threw him under the bus.

Mr. Essien first made the post in March 2021, lamenting how the supposedly false remarks of the headmaster nearly cost him his travel opportunity to China.

Following a resurfacing of the post, the headmaster has come under criticism for describing his former student in such terms.

The headmaster, who is active on Facebook, is yet to respond to the allegations of his former student since the matter came up.

Read Essien’s full post from 2021 below:

While going through my travelling documents this evening, I came across my Secondary School Leaving Testimonial and I feel like sharing a motivation with someone who maybe is going through similar situation.

So, in August 2018 I was preparing for a Chinese study Visa to study Aircraft Manufacturing in Northern China, Shenyang Aerospace University.

After submitting my documents, the embassy requested for my High School Leaving Testimonial, so I made it to my high school for a testimonial.

I got to the school early morning but got the testimonial in an envelope around 11am.

Because it was urgently needed and I had to be in Accra to present same day or next day, I did not open the envelope to check what was actually written therein.

I rushed to Accra and it was late so I went the next day to present it at the embassy.

I had already finished my interview and the testimonial was just an additional document that was missing so there was no need for any other interview with the consular.

As a gentleman with clean heart and mind, I checked not my testimonial, but just submitted at the embassy.

In about an hour and 30 minutes later, I was on my way to Madina, and I got a call from a 030 office number, saying I am needed at the Chinese embassy again.
On my return, I was wondering what would make them call me same day while my collection date is in 5 days?

I kept fighting with my brain, but there was no reason coming up, so I just stopped thinking and headed straight back to the embassy.
When I got there, I was asked to go meet the consular, same room I had my interview 3 days ago.

My heart skipped a beat but I took a deep breath and entered with a huge smile on my face.

When the woman saw me, she started speaking Chinese, I did not understand, I was still smiling.

She switched to English and asked me “what is funny?” and I said “I don’t know, I am just happy”.

I was offered a seat and she showed me this document below if it’s mine, upon seeing just my name, I responded confidently, “Yes! That’s my document”.

She then placed it in the middle of my documents and asked me to explain what my headmaster had to say about my behavior and attitude when I was in school.

I went back to thoughts, and responded calmly, “Excuse me, please I have no idea what is written in that document, can I please take a look?”

She was kind to me and she showed it to me, I took about 2 minutes to finish reading cos I wanted to understand word by word, letter by letter what was contained therein.

After reading through, I told her, I have no idea what it means in the document but I think I know the reason. She asked me to explain and these were my words.

“I live in a country where young people are taught to be shallow thinkers in the formal educational sector. Instead of teaching us Bravery, we are taught Fear.

In place of respect and loyalty, they teach us how to lie and protect the lie.
Instead of teaching us to be kind, they teach us to hate ourselves and in public pretend we love each other.”

She asked me if I opened the envelope before submitting the documents, and my response” No”.

She then said, “well, I am done with you, and your collection date is in 5 days”.

I thanked her and I left.

I got my Visa on the 5th day.

Lesson: Don’t be fraid to speak and stand by the truth, don’t let anybody make you feel inferior because you are just, gentle and simple.

Don’t let people feel their thoughts about you is final and the truth, and always keep in mind that, “sometimes, young people are genius than older people”.

My name is Isaac Kwaku Essien, I am not disrespectful, I am not ungrateful, but I make decisions, and stand by my decisions, regardless, the 3rd person’s views, critics or actions.