Chaos and vandalism by Free SHS students in ongoing WASSCE, a feeling of entitlement?

The first batch of the free SHS students commenced their written WASSCE papers on Monday 3rd August 2020 with a core subject, Integrated Science. Before WASSCE, there had been General Certificate Examination, (GCE) and Secondary School Certificate Examination, (SSCE) for Second Cycle students in Ghana.

At no time in the history of the GCE, SSCE and even the WASSCE, has the country witnessed the level of chaos, hooliganism, vandalism, insults and cursing of high profile personalities including the President of the Republic, as we have been experiencing for the past few days in schools across the country. Apart from insulting and threatening the President, students were also seen invoking the spirit of river deities on him. School property were vandalized and some teachers and examination officials were also threatened or inflicted with injuries.

READ: Dismissing and barring students from WASSCE 2020 too harsh – NUGS

Tweneboah Kodua SHS in Ashanti Region; Tamale SHS in Northern Region; New Juaben SHS, Bright SHS and Oyoko Methodist SHS in Eastern Region; Battor SHS in Volta Region; Sekondi College in Western Region; and Ndewura Japkpa SHS in Savanna Region; among others, have recorded one incidence or the other in the first week of the written part of the WASSCE.

In fact, the levels these agitations have assumed amongst students are not only alarming and unprecedented but also alien to the tradition and history of these examinations in Ghana.

This article attempts to dig deep into the causes of this unprecedented chaos and vandalism. My next article will hazard some solutions to tackle these disturbances in order to prevent their occurrence in the future.

I must indicate from the outset that I condemn in no uncertain terms these acts of indiscipline culminating in disrespect for authority and rules, insults, hooliganism and vandalism in schools not only among these WASSCE Candidates but also among students in general. As a former teacher and Headmaster, I could not fathom living with this indiscipline in my school during my time.

And what moral lessons are students picking from the General Secretary of the ruling party who could denigrate an accomplished Professor, the first female Vice-Chancellor of a Public University in Ghana and a result-oriented former Minister of Education, that she deserves hand waves only by head porters or Kayayes on the streets of Accra?

We have sowed the bad seeds which we are now reaping.

If not so, how could a young adolescent student, who qualifies to be a great grandson of a sitting President of the Republic, get the audacity, the arrogance, the impudence, to tell the President he is B?, to wit a fool?
It is sickening, repugnant and nauseating to hear such vulgar words from a student.

MUST-READ: 7 Reasons for the indiscipline and vandalism by WASSCE candidates – Educationist

Source: Kwami Alorvi