State Of The Nation's University Campuses

A GNA feature by Rex Annan

Accra. Nov. 15, GNA - In recent years, universities and institutions of learning in Ghana that are supposed to be churning out social, political, economic and religious leaders for the country have turned out to be places where vices are perpetrated. It is on record that moral decadence is high on the university campuses.

There was the recent case of assault on a musician who had gone to one of the campuses to perform. There was also the case of examination malpractice and fraudulent admissions at some of the universities. This can be blamed on the new sexual freedom, development in pregnancy prevention methods, legalization of abortion, break down in family, decline in parental control, media promotion of cheap values, sexual stimulation in music and dancing and dressing that promotes sexual arousal and immoral thoughts in men, sex education and love for money.

As the case stands on the campuses at present, one may not need to browse pornographic sites on the Internet or read literature that depicts pornography. Pornographic sites exist in the lecture halls, hostels and everywhere on the campuses through, "spaghetti", "fish skirt", "silted pants," palazzo pants", "mini-skirts", "cupsy tops" among other things.

This situation is connected with falling educational standard, exacerbated by various forms of academic dishonesty and examination malpractices.

There is also so much unrest on the various campuses. The unrest takes different dimensions, cutting across the entire campus life of the institutions, thus making them unsafe for human habitation. The unrest includes students' riots, student boycott of classes; strike on the part teaching and administrative staff and other confrontational positions taken by either students or staff of the institutions.

In some cases of unrest, lives are lost and property worth millions of cedis destroyed. Some of the institutions are closed down for very long periods, thus resulting in loss of valuable teaching and learning hours. There is so much fear and trepidation. The institutions, which normally should be quiet or serene for teaching and learning, are turned to almost battle fields without the military. Another cause of campus unrest is occultism. The dictionary defines cult as group of people that follow a system of worship, especially one that is different from the usual and established forms of religion in a particular society. This is a most serious vice that permeates virtually all-tertiary institutions in the country. Students rush to become members of cults and secret societies because of the wrong indoctrination that the organizations have the power to improve their academic performance in the various institutions and they will pass their examination without putting in the needed efforts.

Closely linked with campuses' unrest is lack of respect for constituted authorities on the part of members of institutions. It is no longer news that corruption and unethical practices prevail in tertiary institutions.

Wherever one looks disaster seems to be looming and the earlier measures were instituted to curb the excesses on the campuses the better it would be for the nation.

For a start the blame game should stop. There should be serious introspection to identify the root causes of the unrest to uproot them. The Government has been calling on educational authorities to impose discipline but at the same time the new found freedom is restricting the power of these authorities.

The case in point is the one the GNA reported recently involving a student, who took the authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, to a court that compelled them to lift arrangements they had made to improve security at the campus. While this might be hailed as an indication of the existence of the rule of law in the country, it, nevertheless punches holes in the cloak of authority of the institution.

There is the need to appreciate the negative and destructive impact of these vices on individuals, family and the nation. All hands should be on the deck to fashion out programmes to deal with the root causes rather than symptoms of these vices.

Let us move a step further not only to churn out a set of social rules, which may be circumvented by the spiritually un-regenerated but smart students, but by appealing to the moral or spiritual worth of the individual.

Such a spiritual approach, this Writer believes would help to get students to say no to evil and act right any where they are.