By Richard Kayenda
Parents send children to school in order for them to receive education and become better citizens of the society.
Schools have become havens for students’ indiscipline.
Social media, negative peer pressure, abuse of drugs and substances; poor parenting styles and low role modeling by teachers prove to be the causative agents of indiscipline among students in Malawi.
Proper guidance, modeling and monitoring by both parents and teachers; use of palaver tree model to resolve indiscipline among students can be better solutions.
While there are various factors causing rampant indiscipline among students, a snapshot survey has revealed that parenting styles are at the centre of loss of moral compass among most students.
Parents have loosened up their strict disciplinary measures on children due to; among other factors, children’s rights.
Besides, parenting style, peer pressure has also contributed to low level of indiscipline.
In his words, Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Executive Director, Benedicto Kondowe, a staunch activist for quality education in Malawi, stressed these factors as root causes of the vice among the future leaders.
“Causes of indiscipline among students may include lack of parental guidance, peer pressure, inadequate school facilities, and ineffective disciplinary measures by schools” stated Kondowe.
Kondowe further posited that students’ indiscipline has serious repercussions on their future as it negatively impacts the quality of education by disrupting learning; causing damage to school property; demoralizing teachers, and creating an unsafe environment.
He is, however, of the opinion that school authorities can ensure discipline by implementing stricter regulations, providing adequate counseling services, improving school facilities, and fostering a collaborative approach with parents and the community.
On the part of parents, Kondowe believes that they should provide proper guidance and monitoring; while teachers should enforce consistent disciplinary measures and serve as role models, as students themselves should take responsibility for their actions and respect school rules and regulations.
While concurring with Kondowe, another education rights commentator, Dr. Steve Shara, admitted that there are serious causes of indiscipline among students and there is need for thematic action in order to decisively deal with the situation.
Shara said: “There are some root causes of the vandalism and violence epidemic we are seeing especially in secondary schools, and there is an urgent need for a deep study of the phenomenon. Anecdotally, we can single out a concoction of management problems, funding challenges, parenting shortfalls, and growing rates of substance abuse amongst young people. This problem will continue to grow if nothing drastic is done to address it in a holistic way.”
He emphasized that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth need to convene a national symposium where key stakeholders, including students, should be invited to deliberate on what is happen. There has already been some preliminary research that can be drawn on. Shara further noted that as the national curriculum review still goes on, the Ministry should use this opportunity to introduce a new sense of purpose in the curriculum. Teachers, students and parents needs to have a shared sense of purpose for education in the country.
While sharing views of the education rights commentators, head teacher for Robert Blake Secondary School, Ellard Msumba, asserted that nowadays most students are misguided by human rights notions; while completely disregarding their responsibilities.
“Most students feel that they have the right to do whatever they want without being questioned because they are children. They lack sense of responsibility and ownership and are not responsible for their education” lamented Msumba.
He added that most students abuse drugs and substances, a situation which renders them offensive of school rules and regulations. Msumba expressed worry that indiscipline among students disrupts quality of education; impacts on poor academic results of students; brings about poor teacher-learner relationships; thereby demotivating teachers’ hard-work.
He opined that punitive measures have to be effective enough to net stop students who resort to destruction of school and private property as a means of expressing their grievances. In that way, discipline in school can normalize.
On his part, acting head teacher for Magawa Secondary School, Balley Sinoya, feels that parents, school management and teachers in general all contribute to students’ indiscipline by failing to enforce effective measures.
According to Sinoya, indiscipline among students is an issue that emanates from their family backgrounds and in school, it is fueled by both teachers and students themselves.
Sinoya argued that there are four categories of causes of indiscipline among students. He said there are times when the vice is fueled by school management and teachers and at times it is also caused by parents or guardians and the students themselves.
On the part of school management and teachers, Sinoya noted that showing favouritism by netting students with different levels of punishment for the same offence, has potential to aggravate indiscipline among students.
Teachers’ drunkenness during lessons, absenteeism, poor planning and communication when tackling grievances of students can also cause serious indiscipline among them.
On the part of parents and students, Sinoya observed that misunderstanding of human rights and democracy coupled with religious, cultural and political influence is loosening their grip of strict disciplinary measures in their homes.
Sinoya quickly isolated students’ abuse of alcohol and other substances and exposure to social media through phones as another cause of indiscipline in school.
While admitting that indiscipline has greatly destabilized delivery of quality education in many schools, safety of teachers and their property and also contributed to moral decadence among students, Sinoya suggests that fighting the vice needs concerted efforts by all stakeholders.
He also called upon the justice systems to net ringleaders with reasonable penalty to deter other offensive students.
Meanwhile, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Chairperson at Magawa Secondary School, Tauliron Lungu, adds that nowadays students are no longer polite to their teachers due to peer pressure, social media and human rights.
“Students no longer respect teachers nowadays. For a very slight misunderstanding in the boarding schools, you will find students going on rampage; chanting to break property” said Lungu.
He extended that riots which result from indiscipline affect delivery of education and retard development in schools as school leaderships are busy with maintenance works instead electing new structures to improve learning infrastructures.
His counterpart at Robert Blake Secondary School, Music Chikafumbwa, said the change in behaviour of most students nowadays is as a result of loose parenting in their homes. Their parents seem to have forgotten their responsibilities.
Chikafumbwa added: “Most students behave in the unruly manner just because of the way they were brought up. They seem not to be in the mood to understand what education is, and what it is about and where they want to go with it. They just go to school to fulfill their parents’ demands.”
He proposed that parents have to instill sense of politeness in their children to their teachers as indiscipline leads to birth of unruly generation.
One Form 3 student from St. John Bosco Secondary School in Mzimba District, Brandon Mwambungu; while appealing to fellow students, said, it is high time they remembered that as students they have always to be disciplined in order to learn better from their teachers.
Attempts to know efforts which the Ministry of Education is making to combat indiscipline among students proved futile as spokesperson for the ministry, Mphatso Nkuonera, did not respond to a questionnaire the journalist sent to him, despite several reminders.
However, former Minister of Education, Agnes NyaLonje, is on record to have implored learners to always follow school rules and regulations.
In order to decisively deal with indiscipline among students, there is need for stakeholders to work on a lasting solution to the challenge.
One of such the effective solutions is the use of palaver tree model; a long time way of resolving misunderstandings among people.
This approach involves gathering people under a tree or any structured facility to discuss the matter and find a solution to it.
Through this model, teachers, parents and other stakeholders have a role to gather students and negotiate with them to find solutions to their concerns instead of resorting to violence.
Malawi’s Education Act of 2013 states that the purpose of education shall be to equip students with knowledge, skills and values to be self-reliant, and to contribute to national development. On the other hand, Enabler 5 of the Malawi Vision 2063 emphasizes on the human capital development.
It states that Malawi shall have a globally competitive and highly motivated human resource through the youthful population which is the greatest source of wealth.
Developing human capital through education, skills and health of the population plays a pivotal role in the transformation of the economy.
So, the Malawi’s national development will only be sustainable if government, education rights activists, teachers and parents join hands in fostering strong sense of discipline, morals and responsibility among students in the country.
In under two years alone, students from over ten secondary schools have damaged through riots property worth millions of Kwacha.
Such riots and vandalism are a sign of rampant indiscipline among students in Malawi
