Teachers say indiscipline in schools on the rise

The level of indiscipline among school children has risen since the ban on caning in schools across the country was implemented, teachers say in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday.

Speaking to a cross section of teachers from both the private and public Junior High Schools in Dansoman, they all claimed that since the ban on corporal punishment effected, no other form of deterrent was put in place.

The teachers say as a result of the ban, most students had become disrespectful to the extent that some of them threaten to report teachers to the police should they cane them.

Ms Barbara Tetteh, a teacher, said “some of the students do not take their lessons seriously and hearing that canning had been banned in schools, they were so happy”.

“When pupils are given assignments, they will refuse to work on them because they know when they come back there will be no punishment than to sweep,” she said.

A teacher at Honesty Educational Academy alleged that, since students knew sweeping was easier to undertake, they always preferred it to working on their home assignments.

Ms Tetteh said the ban on canning was not helping students, adding that, when pupils see the canes, there was a sense of seriousness.

Ms Rachelle Neequaye, a teacher, also admitted that discipline in schools had become a big challenge to teachers since the ban on canning.

“Students misbehave and talk to their teachers anyhow, not coming to school on time, improper dressing and also not taking their lessons seriously,” she said, and called for a solution since teachers cannot use the cane as an option.

Ms Neequaye suggested the lifting of the ban on canning and also pleaded with the Ghana Education Service to come out with other forms of punishment that can instil discipline in schools once again.

Ms Naomi Fometu, a teacher at the Bethesda Methodist pre-school, said the absence of canning had created a problem.

“The only language most children understand is the cane,” she said, adding that, some are canned in their homes so without the canes some turn deaf ears to every issue.

Ms Fometu said because Bethesda was a pre-school, the only punishment given to the kids was to tell them to stand or for their friends to hoot at them.

Mr Kwame Avafia, a teacher, said the ban on caning in one way or the other had been yielding both good and bad results.

He explained that it was good in the sense that, in most cases some teachers cane the children mercilessly without any good reason, so the ban had eliminated this wicked act.

“The other side of the issue is that, the ban enables some kids to deliberately show gross disrespect, yet they could not be disciplined to put them on the right course.

He said some children are canned at home, so its absence in school makes them stubborn.

Mr Avafia, however, noted that, some of the students are timid, and fear canes therefore when they see them it impedes their learning progress.

He said in extreme cases, the headmaster could instruct a teacher to give some recalcitrant students about three or four lashes.

Speaking to the headmaster of New Salem School, Mr Emmanuel Addy, he said most parents do not have time to discipline their children at homes, as a results, when they come to school, the least discipline given them seems too harsh.

He said every stubborn student was summoned to his office for the necessary punishment.

Mr Addy said “since the ban on canes, the punishments we gave was to request students to kneel down, water flowers or deprive them off their playing periods.