Ghana’s untouchable seniors in the secondary schools

Let me tell you a story about my high school days. I was in my first year in Accra Academy. One glorious daybreak while going to the canteen to have my dear breakfast, a senior called me over. When he handed me a 20 pesewa coin he said I should “…buy jollof rice and chicken and salad with the coin and bring it to me.” In a Ghanaian secondary school, that is a command, and he added I should buy one pure water.

Jollof with chicken and salad, all for 20 pesewas? This guy must have been crazy! Hahahaha.

Actually, that was also on my breakfast menu.

Let me tone down my words, after all ibi SHS life.

You see eh, those days in Accra Academy, there were three very popular jollof rice sellers. Hajia, Beyonce and the rest. The canteen and some few provision shops, was under a cluster of giant neem trees close to the dinning hall in front of the boarding houses.

I walked to “Beyonce”, placed the order like always before and gave myself a nice treat. Then with the 20 pesewas, I bought a sachet of standard pure water to wash down everything down the drain. Hahahahaha.

But wait ooo! I feared somehow that if this senior should find me, Wolahi! So I quickly looked for the protocol prefect for a refuge. Hahaha. If my memory serves me right, I recall finding him at the Assembly Hall and there had the incident reported to. (His name was either Odame or Akoto, I actually don’t remember). When he asked about the 20 pesewas and I told him I had spent I, you should see the warmth and assurance with which he congratulated me for that boldness. God bless him! Hahahahah!

Well, aside the jollof case, I hardly remember reporting any infractions against me to the authorities. But I remember having, albeit sometimes playful, a few “scratches” with a few of them. One senior confiscated my food because I had shown insubordination by joining seniors at the table. Two seniors seized my phone and unless I pay some “fine” I wasn’t getting my “yam” back.

Not long after winning the jollof war in the first year, two seniors seized the phones of Albert and I. Albert was the shortest lad in our class but loudly vocal. You see, the thing is, I was also short but we had a hierarchy and I wasn’t particularly tall but with Albert in the class, I could not fit for candidacy for the throne of dwarfs.

Croffein and and Adu Gyamfi were good examples but Albert was outstanding. Hahahaha. And perhaps, the seniors took him for a child. So you see, they let him go. Yes, they let one of their criminals go. That was when I asked the senior, what right has he and under whose law am I being deprived my phone. I muddied the waters. This took place at the entrance and not until they saw a teacher (I think that was the Physics teacher, Ori or Original) approaching, they kept me harassed.

We have seen a viral video of two future leaders going at it in a banter. We are told it’s a senior and a junior of St. Augustine's College. And as fate would have it, there was a camera in the room to expose something that regularly occurs behind closed-door.

We are hearing the comments and suggestions from the left, right and the center. We are also hearing the school authorities have already taken some action.

The way I see the thing eh, it is like there is something inherently wrong with our country’s curriculum.

And by curriculum, I mean the hidden curriculum.

The culture of school-mother, school-father in a sense creates a guardianship system where seniors lord over juniors in the name of socialisation. While I do not want to suggest it’s a bad agency in our schools, there is a need to take a progressive look at guardianship in the boarding schools. Though it was traditionally meant to create an atmosphere where seniors receptively socialize freshers into the school culture, abuse by some seniors is one side issue we must not overlook.

We are hearing people are asking why the junior refused to report the abuse.

But we should also ask, “who is bold enough to report their fathers and their mothers?”

The answer is, we do not report seniors in Ghanaian schools.

What is more? Unless our seniors in schools are made to start thinking they are not parent, they will continue to lay their finger on their juniors. And unless juniors are told they have no mother or father in the dormitory, they will continue to take beatings and keep silent.

Now, back in Accra Academy, there was this man who was our form master. Mr. Amakwa. He taught Mathematics. I still think he is a nice person because he had what it takes to tame a class of over forty teenage boys. But there was one thing I disliked about his style. He was too mathematical with everyone. Hahahaha. You see, he hardly listened to accused persons when they were dragged to him. Then, one day, I had to face him because Mark Lamptey, the class prefect, who polished his shoes hundred times a day, had a mirror, afro comb and body splash in his bag, sent me to him that I was eating a pie in class. Chai!

When Amankwa summoned me, I knew I had very little chance. And true to my words, he asked me to kneel down before I could say a word. Hahahaha. Then an idea hit me. I had seen Mark and a few of his clique with phones in their bags. By then I had never heard the saying “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.” But I felt it instinctively. So you see, Mark himself had no clean hands. So I also exposed he and his friends. Hahahahah. He wanted me punished because I had sinned differently. Me that I was only eating a pie? The bags were sent for and lo and behold, three or four phones were found. Hahahaha.

You see, during orientations for first years, they are warned not to disrespect seniors. Like chattel slaves on plantation farms, juniors are reminded to be obedient to teachers and seniors. And the looks, the scolds and name calling that happens when you dare hand over one deviant senior to authorities is too much of a burden to bear.

But I have a question oooh, “who has the right to discipline deviant learners?”

School authorities or seniors?

In the St. Augustine’s video, we see and hear onlookers in the room as the senior put the junior in choke-hold and bang his face on the metal. You know why? Because seniors are untouchable.

And hall-masters are likely to brand a fresher disrespectful once they are dragged before them. It often looks like once you are a junior in a secondary school in this country, your liability is determined even before you commit a crime. And first years shiver to appear before these unfair jurisprudence. So why not endure abuse and beatings by untouchable age mates than to endure it from those who ought to know and protect them better.

Someone should explain to me, “why have we curtailed the power of teachers in terms of punishing students, but seniors still hold any power at all?”

“what right has seniors got to punish juniors for violating G.E.S policy?

“What right has seniors got to chastise juniors when they go against school-based legislation?”

“And who also realize that we grow with this and become timid in the future in the face of administrative injustice?”