Upholding child rights the cause of mass indiscipline among students – GNAT

The refusal of parents and the community to allow teachers to fully discipline students accounts for the mass indiscipline seen among students in recent times, says an offical of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).

Mr Christian Yaw Adinkrah, the chairman of the Madina-Abokobi chapter of GNAT attributes the mass indiscipline among students to the refusal of parents to allow teachers to discipline their wards in the schools.

"You discipline a student and the next day he or she picks a phone and calls his or her parents, as well as the community.

"They come to threaten to report the conduct of teachers to the Ghana Education Service (GES)," he narrated.

This, he holds, has made teachers coil into their shells when it comes to ensuring discipline on campus.

He said teachers are often confronted with the talk about the rights of the child any time they attempt to discipline some of these recalcitrant students.

He added that many teachers have issues pending at the various disciplinary committees as a result of their attempts to ensure discipline.

He said that for fear of being dragged to the GES disciplinary committee, many teachers are shying away from ensuring discipline in the schools.

He further said the incessant quoting of the right of the child has contributed to the high moral decadence in the country, particularly among students.

Mr Adinkrah made this attribution while reacting to the action of some students of Chiana Senior High School in the Upper East Region who got on social media to rain insults on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr Adinkrah spoke on Accra 100.5 FM's mid-day news on Thursday, November 17, 2022.

"I was amazed when I heard some of the abuses the students threw at the president on social media.

"These are happening all because the community and the parents have refused to give the mandate to teachers to ensure their children are disciplined," he stressed.