Roaming Pen: Should We Accept The New Education System? – Part 3
The Roaming Pen has been critically analyzing the new education system introduced by the Government of Sierra Leone. (Photo: Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti) aka Roaming Pen)
In parts one and two of the debate on whether or not to accept the new education system recommended by the Professor Gbamanja Commission of Inquiry on education, the Roaming Pen looked into some of the immediate recommendations proffered by the Commission.
In this part three, analysis on other immediate recommendations continues.
Regulation of Extra-Curricula Activities
The government has accepted the recommendation of the commission to regulate extra-curricular activities in schools and colleges. These activities include dances, sports, school outings and carnivals.
It is an open secret that pupils, students and school authorities prioritize extra-curricular activities at the detriment of the normal academic schedule of schools and colleges.
This is undoubtedly as a result of the financial and social gains the parties concerned reap from such activities.
The school authorities use these activities as a means to extort money from parents and pupils, whilst the pupils and students themselves have developed so much interest in these activities at the expense of quality education.
It is sad to note that extra-curricular activities are gradually but dangerously gaining more prominence in the country’s education system, as school authorities now allocate more time and premium to these activities for obvious reasons.
In most schools, a vital part of the second term of every academic year is allocated to sports, dances, outings and march-passes.
During this period, pupils and students neglect their academic work as a result of the excitement for extra-curricular activities. They hardly attend classes and lectures because such period is considered as weeks, months, and terms of school festivities.
The teachers also use these festivities as an excuse to dodge their teaching duties.
Sadly, pupils and students are now more concentrated on the ‘all work and no play make Jack a dull boy’ adage, and forget or exhibit total neglect for the adage that states: ‘all play and no work make Jack a stupid boy”.
With the aforementioned realities, there is no doubt that the school system needs urgent and proper overhauling as far as extra-curricular activities are concerned. Therefore, accepting to implement regulatory mechanisms in this regard can only be best described as a step in the right direction.
Skipping classes and lectures for games, sports and dances is definitely one of the major factors that have destroyed the country’s education standards. There is indeed the need for radical cutbacks of these activities, so as to redirect the focus of the children to things that will not only benefit them in the future, but will also benefit the country as a whole.
Permanent Ban on Devilish Cult Activities
The existence of devilish cult activities in various colleges and schools remains a course for concern. Initiation of school children into these cult clubs started in tertiary institutions and gradually crept its way into the secondary schools. Investigations have it that the continuation of cultism in schools and colleges is largely responsible for the acts of violence among students and pupils. It is also on record that students and pupils lost their lives during the process of initiation into these devilish societies. The initiators reportedly use cruel and ruthless methods to welcome members into these cult societies.
In colleges, members of these societies hoodwink unsuspecting students into believing that they will not come out successful in the university if they are not initiated into these societies. They hoaxed them into believing that lecturers and other school authorities are all members of these cultic societies, and that non members would be victimized during examination periods. The aforementioned and more hoaxes are being used to convince students to join their devilish societies. Those who prove reluctant to join them face challenges including intimidation and isolation. Social clubs in colleges are ostensibly used to attract new students but in reality, they are all devilish cults.
The activities of cult societies reached an alarming peak that earlier forced the government to impose a temporal ban on all ‘social’ clubs and devilish cult activities in tertiary institutions. It is an open secret that social clubbing and cultism continue unabated in these tertiary institutions irrespective of the government order.
Noticing this, the Commission recommended that the government imposes a permanent ban on devilish cult activities, and the government has already accepted the Commission’s recommendation.
What the Commission however fails to recommend or make clear is the mechanisms, if any, to ensure that this ban holds. The temporal ban made no significant impact as initiations into these societies dangerously continue. So what guarantee do we have that this permanent ban will achieve the desired impact?
Banning of Extra Lessons
The Professor Gbamanja Commission of Inquiry on education recommended a ban on extra lessons for pupils on school premises.
The government white paper states that: “Government does not accept the recommendation of the Commission. Government however, agrees that syndicate classes on school premises should be banned”.
Extra classes are considered as classes organized outside the normal school timetable, but for which no fee is charged, whilst syndicate classes are those classes for which the teachers insist on payment from the pupils.
The government believes extra classes are at the advantage of the pupils and should not be banned. This means teachers are at liberty to organize such classes, as long as they are being held free of cost, in order to make up for the limited teaching time being allocated to them. The teachers are therefore expected to desist from organizing classes on school premises as a means to extort money from pupils.
Banning of syndicate classes on school premises in a country like Sierra Leone would create more harm than good, as teachers will now switch to organizing such classes at their homes. This will definitely expose the pupils, especially the female pupils, to several negative hazards including but not limited to sexual harassment.
It is an open secret that most teachers are in the habit of sexually harassing pupils at schools and some even impregnate them.
With this reality, it is catastrophic for teachers to organize syndicate classes at their homes, as it will definitely serve as an easy ride for the teachers to continue their immoral activities on female pupils.
What the Commission should have done, in my view, was not only to recommend for a total ban on all syndicate classes, but to also make it a criminal offence for teachers to hold such classes in their houses. Hope the government will take this aspect into consideration so as to avert a looming danger. Banning of syndicate classes on school premises is definitely not enough.
Enforcement of School Ethics
Government has accepted the recommendation of the Commission to ‘enforce by statutory instrument a code of conduct, including a dress code for all teachers and pupils’. This means the government will enact or create laws that will legally hold teachers and pupils accountable for violating such code of conduct.
The proper monitoring and implementation will help a long way in restoring discipline in the schools. It is an open secret that teachers and pupils are having field days in doing whatever they feel, irrespective of the disciplinary laws that exists in the various schools. The teachers and other school authorities have proved incapable of regulating the excesses of pupils because they themselves are not disciplined. A male teacher whose common trade is to propose love affairs to female pupils definitely has no moral value to regulate the activities of an immoral pupil.
Also of grave concern is the way and manner in which the teachers and pupils dress. Whilst most teachers must be commended for always trying their best to appear neat and decent in front of the pupils, the little talked about the dress styles of several other teachers the better.
The pupils, both males and females, have recorded worse occurrences when it comes to dress methods. The male pupils are notorious for dressing shabbily, whilst the female pupils have become addicted to appearing partially naked, even in their school uniforms.
Female pupils do wear uniforms that cannot cover their knees and in the event expose themselves to the attraction of men who cannot control themselves. No wonder why a good number of the male teachers fall prey to this seductive type of dress introduced by female pupils.
Bottom-line, teachers and pupils flout, with impunity, the rules and regulations governing the schools.
There is therefore the urgent need for the government to put in place legal instruments that will properly regulate and enforce the dress and other codes of conducts governing teachers and pupils.
Watch out for Part Four
Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti), Freetown
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