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When parents send their children to school, teachers and other school authorities are in loco parentis. What this means is that the teachers and the rest of staff at the school assume the role of parents. Parents therefore look up to teachers not to just teach their children but also to provide parental guidance. It is a fact that when children are attending school, they spend the greater part of their time at school.
The situation is even worse when the children are at a boarding school where school authorities apart from providing education, ensure that the children are well fed, have a proper place to sleep and are assisted to manage their time daily. It is therefore the responsibility of school authorities to ensure pupils have the best education and at the same time are moulded to become good and upright citizens.
Parents are therefore justified to blame school authorities when their children become delinquent and for example abuse drugs or drink alcohol. The worrying trend now is that it seems it has become fashionable to be delinquent at school. Cases of pupils abusing alcohol, smoking mbanje or engaging in prostitution are on the increase and the challenge to society is to find the root cause.
Recently 21 pupils from Tennyson Hlabangana High school in Hope Fountain were sent home for allegedly smoking mbanje. Not long ago parents of David Livingstone Secondary School in Ntabazinduna were called to the school to administer corporal punishment on their children who were also caught smoking mbanje. We also reported this week that pupils from Montrose Girls High had turned a section of Barham Green suburb into a nook for having sex and drinking alcohol.
According to residents, the girls bunk lessons to spend quality time with their boyfriends. They engage in sex and drink alcohol during school hours. The behaviour of today’s school child was unheard of in the past. School authorities were very strict and anyone found to be behaving waywardly was punished severely.
The yesteryear authorities did not hesitate to expel pupils who flouted the school rules and regulations. It seems today most school authorities have relaxed rules and regulations governing the conduct of pupils hence the increase in cases of delinquent pupils.
There seems to be lack of supervision at most schools and as such pupils’ indulgence in anti-social activities like drug and alcohol abuse goes unnoticed for a long time. Pupils today can easily smuggle mbanje or alcohol into their dormitories, a confirmation of supervision laxity.
There is therefore urgent need for all stakeholders who include school authorities, parents and officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to work together to establish the root cause of this disturbing trend which is adversely affecting the pupils’ learning. There is a need to reflect and learn from yesteryear school administrators who churned out exemplary graduates from their schools every year.
Their school names became proud brands because of the behaviour of their pupils. Schools should once again assume the role of both educating the pupils and moulding them into upright and law abiding citizens.
Online Reporter