Make schools safe, conducive for students

Last two weeks, the nation woke up to the bizarre story of a final year student of O'Reilly Senior High School in Accra stabbing his mate to death.

The incident, which was reported to have started as the usual adolescent banter as to whose father was richer, turned disastrous, leading to one stabbing the other to death. 

The incident, which was widely reported, sparked public anger and debate over the safety of the school environment, especially at the secondary level, in the country.

Just a year ago, a viral video of a student in the Central Region depicted a student strangling his mate, while others filmed the incident, which resulted in disciplinary action against the perpetrator.

Indeed, there are uncountable cases of unreported bullying  in our schools’ but the perpetrators are left off the hook.

These developments have necessitated calls for a second look at the no discipline (caning) policy in schools, which has emboldened some students to throw caution to the wind.

The students, when in school, are supposed to be brought up properly by the teachers as disciplined, well-groomed leaders capable of taking over as tomorrow’s leaders.
Ensuring that students comply with rules and regulations, whether in school or wherever they find themselves, is the cardinal role of school authorities.
Naughty as students are, one way to get them to fall in line is the use of the cane, which every child dreads. 
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education, through the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) directive to abolish any form of punishment, especially corporal punishment in schools, has led to school authorities folding their arms to watch the students turning out into monsters.
Aside from the directives by the GES, most students are also emboldened by their parents, who would storm a school compound to confront any teacher who dares discipline their children.
Every child needs to be corrected, and correction can be in different forms. Even the Holy Book talks about the need to discipline children, as we find in Proverbs 13:24 NKJV,  “He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”
Currently, there is a high level of indiscipline among students in our senior high schools because the students have realised that the teachers are powerless.
  Consequently, many school authorities these days seem helpless as they look when most students misbehave with careless abandon, breaking schools’ rules and regulations.
It will interest us to know the current state of insecurity on school campuses in the United States, where students carry guns and shoot their mates.
We must not get there as a nation that thrives on time-tested values such as respect, honesty, integrity and the fear of God. 
Modernity, surely, does not equate to loss of sense and direction. We must not sacrifice the hard-fought freedom won for us by our forefathers on the altar of modernity and human rights.
The incident at the O’Reilly SHS, though sad, is a wake up call for management of our education sector to take a second look at the issue of discipline in our senior high schools.
Thankfully, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has waded into the issue by calling for an urgent stakeholder engagement to fashion strategies to tackle  indiscipline in schools.
The Daily Graphic endorses the call by GNAT for educational authorities, teachers, parents, civil society organisations and heads of schools to brainstorm to come out with workable solutions so that together, the problem of indiscipline will be tackled for the collective good of all.
We are, however, consoled by the fact that the committee of enquiry instituted by the GES to thoroughly investigate the circumstances leading to the unfortunate incident last Wednesday presented the findings of the committee to the bereaved family at a closed-door meeting.
The Daily Graphic believes that even though the GES has not made the report public, it has promised to put in place structures to forestall a recurrence .
We, however, believe that making the report public would not only serve as guide for the authorities of O’Reilly SHS, but managers of education in the country.