Over the past few days there have been reported cases of student vandalism and destruction of school properties in Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School in the Ashanti Region and Ndewura Jakpa Senior High Technical in the Savanna Region.
The demonstrations were allegedly caused by the strict supervision of the school authorities during the writing of the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
At the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School, the riot resulted in the destruction of properties, with the boys marching to the office of the District Chief Executive (DCE), and the girls refusing to take food served at the dining hall. The police were subsequently called in to restore calm, as the protest nearly halted the writing of the Integrated Science examination.
In the case of Ndewura Jakpa Senior High Technical, the students vandalised the school’s properties and destroyed the lighting system, plunging the whole place into darkness. Parts of the ceiling of a new six-unit classroom block handed over to the school to end the double track system were removed.
In both protests by the students it is sickening and appalling to note that they were allegedly caused by strict supervision of the school authorities during the writing of the WASSCE examinations, and the strict adherence to the 1.5-metre social distancing sitting arrangement in the examination hall.
In another instance, the Effiduase Magistrate Court in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region has remanded four final year students of Effiduase Senior High Commercial School (EFFISCO) over an allegation of gang raping a form one female student.
The four student suspects, who are sitting the WASSCE exams, have to visit the examination centre under police guard to write their exams and after taken back into police custody.
In today’s lead story of The Chronicle, some students of Bright Senior High School, a private SHS in Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, were reported to have allegedly chased, hounded, pounced on and beat a reporter with cudgels, sticks and knives. If the reporter had not shown a clean pair of heels he would have been a dead body by now. The reporter had gone to the school to investigate alleged cases of examination malpractices in the on-going WASSCE.
The Chronicle is, indeed, shaken to the marrow by the above display of crass misbehaviour and vandalism by students who are supposed to be at an age range of 16 to 18 years. These students are supposed to be in their adolescent adult age, where their major developmental character traits are formed for the future. It cannot be lost on this nation that most of our youth are consuming alcohol and abusing drugs, which goes a long way to shape their characters.
The earlier we nip this canker in the bud, the better it will be, because it is a well-known fact that the youth of any country is its greatest asset. The wealth and strength of any nation is its youth, and the future of a nation lies in the hands of the quality of its youth.
It is important to note that issues concerning the youth must be of utmost concern to the nation as a whole.
The post Editorial: Students, vandalism and the future of the country appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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