The National Coordinator of the District Roads Improvement Programme (DRIP), Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has expressed deep concern about what he describes as growing moral decadence in Ghana’s senior high schools, blaming it partly on the ban on corporal punishment.
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Friday, October 3, Nii Lante Vanderpuye said the removal of caning and other forms of discipline has led to a breakdown of order in many schools.
“As a parent, I’m worried about the level of moral decadence in our secondary schools. It’s terrible,” he said.
“I was very uncomfortable when the whole issue about removing corporal punishment came up. I totally found it very, very wrong. This has led to serious breakdown of discipline because students are now doing things and they go away with it. Teachers cannot accept their responsibility the way they’re supposed to,” he noted.
According to him, many teachers are frustrated but feel unable to speak out publicly.
“I talked to a lot of teachers during the campaign. I interacted with a lot of them and they are not comfortable with the environment, but they can’t talk about it,” he noted.
Nii Lante Vanderpuye called for a national debate on education and discipline, stressing that society must take a closer look at student behaviour and school management.
He did not mince words when reacting to reports of misconduct involving an assistant headmaster (Academic) of KNUST Senior High school and a female student, saying such behaviour warranted punishment.
“If I were the parent of the girl, I would just go and give the headmaster some slaps,” he said, before quickly adding, “Yes, what you did is terrible. And you think such a person should not be given some lashes? But I hear a lot of people do it. Somebody was telling me they all do it. It’s just that it hasn’t come on video.”
The former MP claimed such cases are not isolated, insisting that indiscipline is now “very rampant” in both secondary schools and even universities.
“Paul, you heard about these things even happening at the universities. These days people are going to university at the age of 18, so they are still young,” he said.
He argued that the country needs to reform codes of conduct across all levels of education, from primary school through to the universities to restore discipline.
“We must look at all these things and see how we can at least reform the sort of code of conduct, ethics, behaviour of students, of teachers, of lecturers, all through,” Vanderpuye said.
Source: metrotvonline.com
