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School fees chop chop
As a little kid in secondary school, Kwame Alomele can recall that indiscipline was all about bullying, going to town without exeat, and childish pranks that caused anxiety among school authorities.
Sometimes the headmaster developed hypertension and hernia, because he was scared stiff. But the worst students did was to riot to protest against the domestic bursar’s defective knowledge in nutritional needs. In simple language, students did not want kenkey and gas oil stew.
They wanted rice and curry chicken stew against pineapple dessert and not kenkey served alongside a sub-diesel sauce that students found revolting.
So they would riot, break into the school store, and steal tins of milk, tinapa, milo, and whatever could be stolen and eaten quietly without any risk of being found out.
It was interesting because all those who thought they would not be identified were shocked to realise that their names were on the headmaster’s list the following day. The headmaster had spies who took part in the riot and later presented an accurate report of who did what and who didn’t steal milo.
The ringleaders were promptly dismissed and the rest were suspended. In their next bills, they were asked to pay for the destruction of school property and then asked to sign bonds to be of good behaviour.
Sometimes the riot got so bad that policemen were called in to quell it, especially during the night. It degenerated into running battles with the police and an opportunity for students to test their knowledge in physics.
Electric jolt
They electrified door-handles and earthed them in such a way that a policeman who held any handle was given an electric jolt, powerful enough to make him somersault. It was enough to put the fear of the devil in truncheon-wielding cops. Some cops returned to base with one eye closed, a cracked head, or a missing ear.
The school is normally closed down for GES to deliberate and investigate the cause of the riot and remedial measures. These riots rarely occurred, and when they did, it meant the students had real cause to go haywire.
It was found that the headmaster collaborated with the bursar to embezzle funds which affected student feeding. The situation normally became hopeless and students had to explode.
Normally, the riot was also seen to be the cumulative effect of administrative thievery, ineptitude, and proven immorality. The headmaster was often accused of being too friendly with some female students—too friendly for comfort!
Such indiscipline student behaviour, however, were isolated cases that reared once in a long while. It was not a phenomenon.
There was also nothing like students being so bad as to spend their own monies meant for settling school fees. You wouldn’t even dream of it.
Who born dog by mistake?
Some parents had to struggle to settle school fees. So when they gave you the money and you misapplied it, that was your end. You better get prepared to become an apprentice mason, because no one was going to give you another chance.
Student girls were also unruly in some ways, but not to the extent of scaling out on Valentine’s Day to have sex orgies in hotels. At least, the girls knew the limit to every misconduct.
Sports was very much encouraged and schools made names out of excellence in various sporting disciplines. During competitions, there were often scuffles among rival schools and students sustained minor injuries. These days, schoolboys organise gang-rapes during sporting events. Check out the recent Dormaa Ahenkro case. What really is happening to the young ones? Are they possessed of the devil?
We are told that the Scripture Union (SU) is having more influence on students in schools. However, this is not reflecting in student behaviour. Could it also be the result of lack of supervision?
What I hear is that the only allowance a housemaster or housemistress gets is ¢10,000 a month. Senior housemasters get ¢20,000 a month, and the health or medicare allowance for teachers is ¢25,000 (is it a year?). How can a housemistress take ¢10,000 a month and be motivated to do a good job? Naturally, she wouldn’t keep a keen eye on the girls.
GES should review all these allowances and make them motivational enough for teachers to do a good job. This is very important.
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THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty.
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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