THE RISING INCIDENCE OF INDISCIPLINE IN GHANAIAN SCHOOLS: MUST CORPORAL PUNISHMENT BE REVISITED?
The recent acts of wanton indiscipline exhibited by some groups of final year Senior High School (SHS) students who are sitting for 2020 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) are not only regrettable but are also condemnable and must not go unpunished. The acts of indiscipline in Ghanaian schools are not limited to senior high schools alone but the entire educational institutions across the country. The recent incidence must be a wake-up call for us to find a complete solution to this disgraceful practice.
On Thursday, August 6, 2020, Ghanaians witnessed an unfortunate incidence of indiscipline from some groups of SHS candidates who claimed that their first paper, that is, Integrated Science which they wrote on that very day was too difficult for them and decided to embark on needless rioting, vandalism, and insults. Some of these students launched various forms of violent attacks and assaults on some WAEC officials, headmasters/assistant headmasters, teachers who invigilated them as well as journalists.
What is too worrying was the insults they poured on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo – the very man who introduced free secondary education which they are the first beneficiaries. It was too shocking that these students mastered courage and made live YouTube videos of themselves insulting the president without regard for his age or position. If nothing at all, they should be thankful to President Akufo-Addo for implementing free senior high education in September 2017 against all odds, which has created access and eliminated all forms of financial barriers impeding the Ghanaian child from obtaining at least, a secondary education. It must be pointed out that without the free SHS, most of these students could not have afforded secondary education. The investment of the state’s scanty resources on their education is part of our collective purpose to build a robust human capital base to transform Ghana in the coming years, despite that we had several other important competing needs.
One would have expected that these first batch of free SHS students would learn hard, pass their examinations, and obtain good grades that would qualify them to pursue various programs at the tertiary institutions such as universities and colleges. They needed to justify the huge investments that the state has made on them. But what I find difficult to accept is why they expected Ghana or the president to write their examinations for them. Why would they blame anyone for the mistakes they have committed? It is their mistake for not learning hard since they have stayed in the school for three full years and was fed three times a day with the state’s money.
Rather than showing appreciation or a sense of gratitude to Ghanaians and the president, we were rewarded with injustice, violence, and insults. This is sad! I now agree with Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the current Minister of State in charge of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation for saying that “… Ghana is not worth dying for, and … it is not easy working for the ignorant and the ungrateful”.
I understand that we are determined as a country to develop our human capital by providing quality education to our young people who would grow up to become responsible citizens as President Akufo-Addo charged us during his inaugural address on January 7, 2017. We cannot, however, afford to the luxury of building an undisciplined society full of ingrates and expect to develop. It is so ridiculous that many Ghanaians are given contrasting views and interpretations of this unruly behaviour of these students who will, in a couple of few months, the transition to tertiary institutions as adults.
Truth be told, there is no justification for their gross misconduct, and any attempt by anyone trying to justify the same for whatever reason must be discarded without giving it a second thought. Indeed, their actions uncalled, and an international embarrassment to every Ghanaian, not only the president or government. They portrayed clear signs of injustice to our society and must be condemned by all and sundry.
But what do we expect when corporal punishment is now being outlawed outrightly or is expunged from the code of conduct for Ghanaian students? I can recall the first, and most important prospectus item that was given to students who obtain admission into senior high schools was the school’s code of conduct prepared by the Ghana Education Service. The code of conduct outlines explicitly the ‘dos and don’ts for all students and their corresponding punishments which were enforced to the maximum by the school’s authorities and teachers.
It is sad when one pondered about how the Ghanaian teacher is now being treated and demonised lately. Ghanaian teacher’s primary task, besides teaching, was to instill discipline and moral values in the school child. Caning was essentially part of our school life, and deviant behaviours such as what we saw on Thursday would have been punished severely by canning but canning is now a thing of the past in Ghanaian schools.
When I was young and in primary school, teachers used to be the most respected people in the Ghanaian society. A teacher was regarded as a role model, a change agent, and a partner in nation-building. Important national and community issues were handled or referred to as a teacher for advice, direction, and guidance. He/she occupied an enviable position in those days and was accorded all the needed respect and support by the society, parents, and the government. The teacher had the authority to reprimand or discipline any child in the community, regardless of whether it was in school or home. This is no longer the case today. The right to discipline or correct the Ghanaian child for wrongdoing has been taken away from the teacher.
In the rural communities including where I come from, anytime a school child was absent from school without a just cause, parents could invite the headteacher/teacher to their home to compel the child to go to school. I had my own share when on that very faithful day my headteacher walked straight into my home and commanded me to take a cold shower and proceed to school immediately. He waited and marched me from home straight to the school when the class had already begun. I was embarrassed and that day ended my absenteeism.
It was very rare or not common seeing a parent resisting or even fighting a teacher for disciplining his/her ward for acts of indiscipline as we see today. Parents, teachers, and government worked together to ensure the proper upbringing of the Ghanaian child in those days. Acts of indiscipline or misbehaviour such as disobedience, theft or stealing, disrespect, or insulting of the elderly were quickly reported to a teacher for immediate action to be taken against the child. Shock and high streams of fear and nervousness were sent down the spines of stubborn and ‘bad children’ when they are doing wrong and heard that their teacher had come around. Until today, I get nervous whenever I see my Primary School Teacher, not because of fear but a sign of respect.
Some will argue that this was certainly not the best way to discipline the Ghanaian child failed to suggest or provide the best alternative way to instill the culture, values, and morals into our children or students. We have suddenly lost total control over our children's upbringing to the extent that they can now insult and assault their teachers, parents, and grandparents with impunity, and nobody seems to care. Ghanaians sued to share a communal spirit, and everyone was another’s keeper. Too recently, that unique sense of true brotherliness, belongingness, rich cultural heritage and values, and collective spirit that bonded us together has disappeared.
It is no longer permitted for anyone to reprimand or correct another’s son or daughter any longer while the position of a teacher in our national development agenda is no longer recognised. Furthermore, the high sense of respect that existed, and characterised the teacher-student relationship has now been reduced to mere comradeship. The consequences are too numerous to be ignored - the motivation, dedication, and commitment of the Ghanaian teacher have now vanished into thin air with no faults of them. Of course, the result is what we are reaping today – the high moral decadence of our young boys and girls in schools, and everyone must be worried about this phenomenon.
As Chinua Achebe said, ‘the Falcon cannot hear the falconer’. The Ghanaian child can no longer hear or obey his/her teacher, parents, and even, the government. It makes me wonder why some important subjects like cultural studies which were metamorphosed into Religious and Moral Education were scrapped from the Junior high school curriculum and syllabus. These subjects helped immensely in shaping the character of our children, instilled in the core Ghanaian values, norms, customs, and morals such as respect for the elderly, handwork, honesty, and truthfulness, to name a few. These values were bequeathed to us by our forebears, and we needed to uphold and cherish them, but we have allowed to them slip through our hands and we are now alienated from them. As a matter of fact, we cannot eat our cake and still have it, but at least, we do have a second chance of baking a new cake.
It is about time our stakeholders in the education sector involving the government, parents, teachers, and religious leaders head quickly to the round table for a national dialogue on the fallen standards of discipline in the Ghanaian schools, especially in the pre-tertiary level. Bringing back the teacher to the centre of the game, restoring the teacher’s dignity, and giving the needed support and encouragement to the teacher is more than enough to rekindle his/her spirit towards maintaining discipline and moral values in our schools.
Discipline in our schools is now more needed than ever, even now that the state is bearing the full cost of educating the Ghanaian at the secondary level. The teacher’s conditions of service such as better incentives, enhanced pay, and benefits must not be missing in the equation. I am fully aware that some teachers might have acted unprofessionally at some point in time in our society. Despite these flaws, we cannot lose sight of the real bigger picture fact that the Ghanaian teacher is still at the forefront of our educational system whom we cannot dispense with. Must corporal punishment be revisiting in the Ghanaian schools?
Peter Nalaw Yatimue,
Ph.D. Student, Universiti Kuala Lumpur