IN THE ongoing national discourse on school violence, several commentators have advanced proposals, most of which are not novel, that should be considered by the authorities as a means of addressing what many have termed a national crisis.
While the Ministry of Education’s cultural transformation policy acknowledges the need for the social re-engineering of the society, beginning with the school, unfortunately there’s nothing new in the translation formula that has not been mentioned or attempted before. The policy outcomes, though laudable in intent, are woefully inadequate for a problem much larger in scope and complexity, and which quite conspicuously avoids the root of the problem.
At a recent public symposium on crime, one scholastic commentator renewed the call for parents to be held accountable for the crimes committed by their children, substantiating his call by a recent court decision in the US to hold the parents accountable for a gun-related offence committed by their minor. This suggestion is consistent with the view that the cultural transformation should begin in the home and community.
Teachers have consistently been saying that the deviance and indiscipline displayed by children in school can be traced to the homes and communities from which these children come. Not only are teachers confronted by parents who are irate and irrational in their defence of their children’s truant ways, it has become patently evident that their parenting approach is now based on a formula emphasising rights and entitlement but devoid of responsibility.
The home is one of the most important social education institutions in the development of a child. It is where fundamental principles of morality and social conduct are imparted from a tender age. It where social order is ingrained. Children learn what they live, modelling behaviours and attitudes of the significant adults in their lives from a tender age. The propensity for many adults to abdicate these parental responsibilities must be arrested.
Unless radical steps are taken to hold parents accountable for the wrongul behaviours of their children, the social decay will continue with its devastating social and economic consequences. The balance between individual rights and societal responsibilities must be restored. For too long the narrative has been disproportionately focused on the right of the individual, while neglecting the good of the society at large.
Teachers have been completely emasculated when it comes to disciplining children. This in turn fuels frustration and feelings of helplessness – a mental state that sadly pervades many of our schools. The cards are seemingly stacked in favour of "children’s rights," making the current arsenal of discipline tools available to school officials completely inadequate to the task.
The complete lack of respect for authority being displayed by minors has assumed unprecedented proportions. Their disregard and refusal to respond positively to verbal instructions from school officials have become the norm in
