By Kehinde Oluwatayo
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Moral decadence in schools across the country has been described as a reflection of a failed society, hence the need for a stakeholders’ summit to right the wrong.
Experts in the education sector in Ondo State who spoke on the issue during an interview with The Hope stated that the hydra headed problem can only be addressed when every stakeholder decides to do the right thing in its own little corner.
Speaking on the issue, a Professor of Counselling Psychology from Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko, Prof. Mrs Banke Omoniyi blamed parents in particular for the failure.
Her words: “Although the problem is hydra headed, parental laxity is the major cause. The mother is no longer there to teach, the father is no longer there to command. So the home front is failed already.
“And when you get to school, the teachers are fraustrated to put in their best because they themselves are already emotionally dysfunctional. So even when a child did something bad and it was reported to the teacher, he would not take any drastic action against it”.
Omoniyi who agreed that the society lost its values when subjects like civic education was removed from the curriculum, stressed that things can be done right again when they are introduced to the curriculum.
“I was discussing with someone recently and I said anything you want to change in any society, just introduce it into the curriculum and start to teach it from the beginning. From nursery, primary, secondary and to the university.
Although one may not be able to change the adult again.
“When we were in primary school, we were taught that we should turn aside from killing insect because they were created by God. I attended Catholic primary and secondary schools, you dare not whip a flower because it has been inculcated in us. So if we inculcate these values in our students by introducing it into our curriculum, it will go a long way in changing their orientation.
“The truth is that we have lost our values. You know that there are so many boys in our universities. Recently when they resumed to write their exam. Cars were parked by 200 level students to the extent that lecturers hardly find a space to park their cars. If there are subjects in our curriculum that do not value such things, people doing it will be ashamed”.
Omoniyi who said some parents are just running around leaving their children behind, charged them to wake up and bring up their children properly so that they do not regret.
She suggested that a forum of all stakeholders should be organised to discuss a way forward.
Also speaking on the issue, Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools in the state, Comrade Tajudeen Balogun berated a situation where parents buy Android phones for the secondary school students.
According to him, they enter into sites that their parents don’t even know including pornographic sites saying what they see in it is what they come and practise in school.
He also condemned the government policy that prevents teachers from flogging students, calling for the moderation of the law.
While calling on parents to be awake to their responsibilities, Balogun urged government to organise a summit like it was done few years ago to find a lasting solution to the problem.
