ASSIST TEACHERS TO MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE (SPREAD)

Story: George Ernest Asare, Konongo

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology, Professor Daniel Mireku-Gyimah, has urged parents and civil society to actively complement the efforts of teachers at strengthening discipline in schools.
This, he said, would enable students to work very hard and diligently “to achieve our national development goals”.
Addressing the 35th Speech and Prize-giving day of Konongo Odumasi Senior High School (SHS) at Konongo last Saturday, Prof. Mireku-Gyimah noted that lack of discipline in society could be attributed to “lack of basic moral education at home and also by civil society, which continues to impede their mental and physical training at the basic, secondary and tertiary levels of education”.
Explaining further, Professor Mireku-Gyimah pointed out that the symptoms of indiscipline among students appeared in the form of truancy, use of hard drugs, immorality, examination malpractices, falsification of certificates, practice of occultism, unnecessary demands and complaints, as well as disrespect for authority, wanton destruction of public property and poor academic performance.
He stated that while indiscipline was an impediment to quality education and undermined sustainable national development, studies had shown that the best students were those who had had good moral education from their infancy and said such students stood the chance of initiating programmes that could impact positively on sustainable national development.
Speaking on the theme: ”Discipline, the bedrock for quality education and national development”, the vice chancellor, who is also an old student of the school, noted that Ghana could not realise her vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2015 if people who took decisions and implemented policies were not disciplined.
“A fundamental tool by which we can achieve our national development goals is good governance, and the bedrock of this tool is indeed discipline,” he stressed, adding that “our ability and willingness to make intelligent decisions have respect for the rule of law, and the capability to work diligently can only be achieved through a well-disciplined society”.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah pointed out that one major problem confronting the nation about which everybody was expressing concern “is the falling standard of education”.
This, he said, was also affecting productivity because “our graduates are unable to perform at the workplace as expected, and employers have to spend huge sums of money to retrain them”.
He said it was equally important for teachers to be disciplined to enable them to become role models to their students.
“Studies have shown that the best schools are those whose teachers and students are disciplined because discipline is the bedrock of quality education,” Prof. Mireku-Gyimah stated.
In his address, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, gave the assurance that the government would sustain its policy of providing infrastructure at all levels of educational institutions in the country to facilitate the delivery of quality education.
He said the policy of the government in turning 31 less-endowed schools in the various districts in Ghana into model schools was yielding positive results because students from the beneficiary schools were enjoying good facilities, making it possible for them to rob shoulders with their counterparts in the well-endowed schools.
“Many projects have sprung up since we took that decision four years ago, and this has made it possible for students to study in conducive atmosphere to improve their standard of education,” he stressed, adding that “the government wants to take infrastructural development in basic, secondary and tertiary educational institutions to a higher level to enhance teaching and learning”.
He commended old students of Konongo Odumase Senior High School for their tremendous contribution to infrastructural development in the school and urged them to sustain it.
In his report, the headmaster of the school, Mr A.A. Amoantwi, commended the government “for its development-oriented policies that had so immensely impacted positively on the school”, but appealed for further assistance to enhance academic performance.
He said for the past 15 years, the school had not been able to use the Science Laboratory because of its deplorable state and, therefore, appealed to the government to assist in renovating it.
Mr Amoantwi said the school also needed a new boys’ dormitory and a 12-unit three bedroom flats to accommodate the boys and teachers respectively to enhance teaching and learning.
He said inadequate number of classrooms was also undermining effective academic work and appealed to the government to construct an 18-unit classroom block to cater for the students in the school.