Curbing killings in our schools

The recent reports about killings in Ghanaian schools especially Senior High Schools have created public dis­course amidst the worrying illegal mining with its wanton distraction.

The issue of killings in our schools also needs to be looked at as it appears serious and may get out of hand if not checked. In very recent times killings in Gha­naian schools are often reported, the very latest one was the death of an 18-year-old final-year student from O’Reilly Senior High School in Accra.

Edward Borketey Sackey, a General Arts Department stu­dent was stabbed on campus and pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Memories are still fresh on the killings of some students on campuses all of which were orchestrated by colleague students.

The sudden death of Theophi­lus Ansah of the Ghana National College in Cape Coast, Peter Ofori who also died under similar circumstances at the Osino Presby Senior High and Technical School in the Fanteakwa South District of the Eastern Region among others need special attention from the Ghana Education Service.

All from indications the situation has reached an alarming propor­tion, and one wonders how this can be curbed.

It would be recalled that not long ago, there arose a high inci­dence of riots and violent activities in our schools which were swept under the carpet. There were re­ported cases of student vandalism and destruction of school proper­ties in such schools as Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School in the Ashanti Region and Ndewura Jak­pa Senior High Technical in the Sa­vanna Region. The demonstrations were allegedly caused by the strict supervision of the school authori­ties during the writing of the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

It could also be recalled that the Effiduase Magistrate Court in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region in 2020 remand­ed four final-year students of Effiduase Senior High Commercial School (EFFISCO) over an alle­gation of gang-raping a form one female student.

The four student suspects, who are sitting the WASSCE exams, have to visit the examination centre under police guard to write their exams and after taken back into police custody.

It is also on record that some students of Bright Senior High School, a private SHS in Kukuran­tumi in the Eastern Region, were reported to have allegedly chased, hounded, pounced on and beaten a reporter of the Ghanaian Chron­icle gone to the school to investi­gate alleged cases of examination malpractices with cudgels, sticks and knives.

At a point, there was a stand-off issue between some old students of the Commonwealth Hall at the University of Ghana and the au­thorities of the institution regard­ing vandalism on campus by some students of the hall.

Vandalism and hooliganism which have now escalated into killings in our schools are one too many and becoming increasingly uncontrollable. Such cases in our schools are endless and one would ask what sort of training students in Ghanaian schools are being offered for the adult life ahead of them. These were not known some 20 years ago in basic schools.

Much as it is common knowl­edge that the environments are not the same because of the drastic changes in social and technological advancement, methods of training must be adaptive to these chang­es to bring students in tune with moral discipline.

Our educational system must not only focus on knowledge and skill acquisition to the detriment of sound character building and moral development. Education has a ma­jor role to play in academic studies. This is understandable but one of the traits that character education teaches the students is the sense of responsibility and persistence which encourages the students to learn and maintain their focus on what’s important in life which is sound character.

Behavioural problems in ad­olescence can make life difficult for adults. According to biologists is normal and must be temporal but if not tackled properly, then it becomes cancer in society.

The need for adults of today to gain the trust of the young ones is paramount in every society. This is important if we want to help them with Behavioural issues. Talking to them and listening to what they have to say as well as helping to address their concerns must be a routine.

It is said that character building is based on six pillars — trustwor­thiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship and all of these can be filled in a child only through adequate education. Producing students with good grades is not enough to help them lead a fruitful life.

An Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, put this in an intrigu­ing perspective. For him, “morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we per­sonally dislike.” This explains that people and the young ones for that matter, express their dislikes and frustrations through hooliganism and vandalism.

Traditionally, moral education is concerned with the interpretation and strategies one uses to under­stand the moral phenomenon and defines the moral person as a pre­dominantly thinking entity, whereas character education emphasizes the development of habits and dispositions as a precondition for the moral person.

Moral education in school helps students imbibe virtues and moral habits that build their personalities while studying and importantly even outside the classroom. While students can be good at math, science and literature, and other taught subjects, if they lack sound character and basic humanity or human interaction skills, their talents are of no value.

Moral education also helps one to distinguish between right and wrong. It gets reflected in one’s personality. This means that even if someone is faced with difficul­ties and wrongdoings he or she does not react in the same. It helps in the building of a good personal and professional life. It helps to eliminate problems like violence, dishonesty, jealousy and hatred among others from one’s life.

These are what make us humane. They are standards that help an in­dividual choose between right and wrong or good and bad. This un­derstanding of morals is absolutely necessary for anyone to make honest, credible, and fair decisions and relations in their daily lives.

The basis of the nation’s moral fibre is fast deteriorating, and this is evidently clear at all levels of our society including the parliament. Something drastic and prompt must be done to halt the unpleas­ant development.

Our students must not only be taught but importantly encouraged to understand and appreciate that morality chiefly requires the sac­rifice of the people to play down their own short-term interests for the benefit of society. If it is al­ways me, and want to fight unduly for everything, that is where and when hooliganism and vandalism come in. because one feels no one will listen to him or her so having its own way would be the best way to go. This must stop and give way to self-respect and honour.

This is because “honour is sim­ply the morality of superior men. Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness. Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.”