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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