Some months ago, there was an airing of opinions about the current trend that students should not be flogged in schools because it is considered old-fashioned. While some of us stood our ground in support of still using the olden-day method of flogging students as a means of punishment, others also stood firmly on the abolishment of using the cane on students. Well, while there are other laid-down methods of punishing students these days to align with the era we are in, I still find them very soft.
Now the question is: is there any need for teachers to report students who are found acting against the law of society outside the school premises, since no major punishment is to be given to them?
Hold on, you think clearing of grass is a punishment or washing the toilet? Those are nothing! Nothing beats flogging! This is not violence 👋
You want to say yes, right?
Before you hit me with the answer, remember also that this is an era where, if a child is found wanting by neighbours and they go ahead to beat the child, the community, especially the parents of the child, frowns at it, insisting that the neighbour should have “secretly” reported the situation to them instead of beating the child. Oh yes, no matter how you want to counter this with the opposite, it is what is happening in the world right now, and while it looked very unwelcome in Africa in times past, it is very much acceptable now.
Do I support that teachers should play a deaf ear?
Yes. With the current trends, society cannot be remedied because citizens fancy the modern way of life, and we cannot go back to dwell in the past.
Last year, there was a situation in Delta State where a father of a child whose child was flogged in school by a teacher took it personal by storming the school and beating the teacher into a coma. This is a case where a teacher punished a child within the school premises; how much more a situation where the punishment happens outside the school premises.
Back in the day, this standard of teachers punishing students when caught in irregularities outside the school premises was a welcomed one. In those days, we used to sneak out of the school premises to go and swim in the river, and at those instances, one of the biggest fears we had was being seen by a teacher or a senior student; it would be hell for us. But these days, even the students who are caught team up to attack the teacher if he does anything. Yes, it happened in the local government where I served. My colleagues who were posted to government schools minded their businesses and never put their mouths into the irregularities of the students, especially those outside the school premises. The world has spoiled a lot.
Do you know the worst situation? If the punishment given to students by a teacher gets out of hand, the school will place the blame on the teacher. They will term it as “oversabi-ness” on the part of the teacher, and truthfully, that is the way I also look at it now, considering the current state of the world.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Week 201, Edition 01 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community
