We have failed our youth - Prof. Joseph Osafo reacts to Chiana SHS students' behaviour

Head of Psychology at the University of Ghana, Professor Joseph Osafo has expressed worry over the behavior of the youth today, particularly about how they respond to the elderly.

He bemoaned the insults and vituperations that have crept into the moral fabric of the society whereby young people have no shame and can boldly use abusive language on elders.

Professor Joseph Osafo believed this has become possible in the Ghanaian society because parents, guardians and teachers have abandoned their core duty of training children to learn moral values and the right behaviour.

He made this comment in reaction to the conduct of some students of the Chiana Senior High School in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region who shot a video making derogatory statements against President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Professor Joseph Osafo blamed the media as well for living a bad example noting there are some media organizations that encourage insults and the exhibition of bad behaviors instead of sanitizing the airwaves.

He also cautioned against the abuse of social media.

"They forget that that thing you are doing, it is data you are churning out. It will remain there and someday be used to judge you . . . So, our value space or spaces have corrupted over the period of time".

"Every freedom comes with a cost . . .There is no freedom without a responsibility. We always say freedom of speech and that the media landscape should be free and allow people to speak their minds but you must know when you make any comment, be responsible for the comment. So, if we want to sanitize those spaces, we must begin a new conversation and this is what some of the media gurus do where they don't encourage certain issues for discussions."

He called on parents and teachers to train the minds of the youth to adopt good behaviours.

"We need to chart a different path and I think it begins now and has begun...this path is heavily important but I've seen that we are more concentrated on Science and Technology education than we will teach our children values, living the right lifestyle, adopting good character, respecting people; good citizen behaviour.

"The quality of human behaviour is not in the many programs we have. It's in the quality of the expressions of our behaviours, our thoughts, our opinions, our ideas . . . so, going forward, we must start value training very well," he said during an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show Friday morning.

GES Sacks Chiana SHS Students

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has condemned the student's attitude and dismissed eight who engaged in the act.

The GES explained they have been sacked for conduct that is “very undesirable, and contrary to the acceptable standards of the conduct generally required of any student in the educational system of Ghana”.

However, the students have publicly apologized to the President and the GES tearfully begging for them to return to the school.