These acts of indiscipline must stop in our SHSs

In every civilised society, there are rules and regulations that guide the smooth running of that society.

These rules and regulations are meant to ensure that the right things are done at the right times. Anyone who goes against them suffers some sanctions to bring sanity into that society to ensure that individuals or groups conform to the norms of society.

The school environment is not different from any society, and so there are rules and regulations governing the running of schools, particularly senior high schools (SHSs).

There are rules and regulations formulated by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and these are localised to suit particular schools to govern the operations of those institutions.

For instance, generally, no student of an SHS is allowed to take a mobile phone to school, while no head of any public SHS is permitted to collect school fees. These are some of the rules in schools that are there to ensure that there is discipline at all times.

In specific cases, every SHS has its own school uniform and prescribed dress and items students are supposed to carry to school. Anything other than the prescribed items by the school will amount to indiscipline, which goes with its own sanctions.

Unfortunately, there is general indiscipline and complete lawlessness in many of our educational institutions and all of us must be worried.

The rising trend is something we cannot be enthused about and, as a society, we must bow our heads in shame for not guiding these young ones well. For instance, as parents, do we really know what our children carry to school? If not, what responsibility do we have for our children?

In some schools, teachers take undue advantage of student girls to sleep with them. Of course, such teachers do not expect the students to respect them or follow any instructions from those teachers.

It is in the light of these and many others that the Daily Graphic joins well-meaning Ghanaians to express concern over the increased level of indiscipline in our SHSs in recent times.

It is not uncommon to hear stories of teachers having amorous relationships with their students, students carrying unprescribed items such as mobile phones to schools and students abusing the use of social media.

Over the past week, the misuse of social media by some students caught the attention of the public, leading to the application of sanctions.

The sanctions imposed on them were because they carried mobile phones to school and used them to do whatever they did.

Truly, the students erred, hence the need to sanction them to serve as a deterrent to others who may be also nursing the intention to do same.

The Daily Graphic fully supports the action of the school concerned in deboardinising the affected students as a way of enforcing its authority.

Rules are rules, and anyone who breaks them must suffer the penalty therein to ensure that we do not blame today's children tomorrow for anything untoward.
Nobody should hide behind any human rights organisation to misbehave and think he or she will go scot-free, for where there is a right, there is a responsibility and the emphasis should not be on the right, to the neglect of the responsibility.

We believe that it is our collective responsibility today as adults to build a responsible future in which we can relax, knowing that the right thing has been done. It is our responsibility and we must not fail.

Let us, as a responsible society, team up to raise responsible children who are set to take over from us.

The government is spending millions of Ghana cedis to give our children free education and the expectation is that the children should reciprocate this kind gesture by concentrating on their books.

So the Daily Graphic endorses the sanctions to ensure that the few recalcitrant ones do not infect the law-abiding ones.

These acts of indiscipline must stop. The students must be told in the face that there is time for everything, and that if the time comes for them to use mobile phones, no one will begrudge them.