It used to be fun when in those days, the fear of school teachers was the beginning of a good, intelligent and respectful scholarship. Parents would at the slightest stubbornness or disobedience exhibited by a child threaten him or her with reporting the act to his/her teacher and the child/student would as a matter of necessity repent and dream never to repeat the action. Of course, I could say that the teachers and indeed, schools then were turning out level – eyed and headed students and pupils who could always be relied on by both parents and teachers anytime, anywhere in almost every aspect of domestic and educational affairs.
Students then were hardworking, obedient and true to their duties. The teachers would depend on them for handcrafts like brooms, baskets, dusters and even canes which these pupils or students, in order to avoid punishment from the teachers, would make them available even when they knew that the cane in particular would function at their detriment. And it was all fun and cordiality between students, teachers and parents irrespective of ethnicity or status. But can this be said of the trio in recent times especially in this era of ‘who be who’ at every strata?
It has become the in-thing among students and pupils of contemporary times to pride with health conditions that would impede the least form of punishment on them by their teachers despite their faults. They hide under such conditions to exhibit all manner of arrogance and disrespectfulness, yet being above the law of the teacher or school and moreso, when the question of ‘do you know my parents?’ comes to play.
Funny still is the fact that these children go as far as feigning critical health conditions just to perpetrate their unlawful acts and only the good Lord would save that teacher that would defy the health rules and mete any punishment on the child. These are just practical ways of phasing off punishment (discipline) in today’s primary and secondary schools, making indiscipline the order of the day. To the extent that for the teacher, her continued earning of the daily bread (salary) is dependent on the fear of disciplining any child thereby living his or her life devoid of threats and harassments from phone calls and thugs as organised by parents.
This was the case at the Community Secondary School, Nkpor, some years back, when it was the talk of the town that a teacher flogged a student to death. It was however, revealed by the principal of the school that the said student only feigned to be epileptic and at just two strokes of the cane fell on the ground and pretended to have fainted. According to the principal, “It is very unfortunate how children today delight in having health conditions. When they know that they have such problem, they choose to disrespect teachers. This particular student is fond of doing this, meanwhile, she is not the one with the health condition, but her sister who is also in the same class with her (SS1) and this is the fourth time the school had taken them home on such instance.
The parents came and threatened, demanding to see the affected teacher, but I won’t let them. I wonder how just two strokes of the cane can send a child rolling round the ground and even fainting and I asked them if they did not discipline these children at home.”The same question keeps repeating itself each time I see or hear parents complain about teachers flogging or disciplining their children at school. More so because the school is not just only one of the agents of socialisation, but a learning place for the child. This, however, has been relegated to the background, no wonder, the high level of recklessness, restiveness and indiscipline among teenagers and youths of the time.
Yet these children must go to school and in fact, spend a great deal of their day in school only amidst pampering and ‘do it as you like’ and the result is turning out indisciplined children. The schools, particularly the private ones, for the purpose of patronage contribute to the situation. Parents now see nothing wrong with filling one health condition or the other on the admission forms of their wards even when they are free of such. And the students, if they are not epileptic, they are asthmatic or the likes and they are satisfied carrying such label as long as they are in school. This scenario is no longer palatable and indeed, unhealthy, not only for the trio (parents, students and teachers) as each is guilty at one point or the other, but also to the society.
It is high time all hands be on deck to ensure that the homes and society have students and children that are well trained and disciplined. Parents need to reflect on the school situation of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s and inculcate in their children that they can be punished by their teachers if they misbehave. This would check the actions and inactions of these pupils or students and thus, provide the desired children, teenagers and youths that would in future and of themselves overcome the challenges of the times and remain useful to themselves and the society.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu