Blame game hurting society

 The illegal practices being reflected in our schools recently warrants discussion with a view to bring about a change to make schools become pride of our society as it is there that the society’s values are supposed to be taught.  

Inter-school school fights in some of the hot-spots around the country are almost like ‘corruption’ in Papua New Guinea  

Everybody knows there is corruption in PNG but do very little to identify where the real problem is and proactively find a solution to reduce or manage it, let alone eliminate corruption from its source.  

It’s scary to think that the schools are now a niche for proliferation and enculturation of illegal practices, the very values that are anti-social to the co-existence of the different peoples in PNG.

We know inter-school fights are concentrated in NCD and Lae City schools.  

However, other centres are not immune from such social disorder. 

I call it a social disorder because orderliness or discipline that schools are supposed to inculcate have now become a melting pot for being used as a launching pad for lawlessness and promulgation of unlawful activities.  

While the school authorities are doing their utmost best to curb this scourge on illegal activities (and we commend their best effort to manage the situation), the successive students entering the school system are systematically indoctrinated by courtesy of ‘Hidden Curriculum’ activities within the school to become anti-social.

Authorities have strongly condemned the school fights or inter-school fights. 

Politicians blame the school authorities such as the head teacher and boards even to the extent of threatening to sack them for failing to maintain law-and order in the schools.   

The school authorities blame the parents for the anti-social behaviour of the students.  

The parents blame the ‘cult practices’ permeating and flourishing in the schools.  

The students blame the  different ‘generation groups’ or cult groups for inciting animosity among and bet­ween students and between schools who took their strong cult views into schools, and which often result in inter-school fights.

Without the benefit of evidence from research to identify the real causes of the school fights, the blame game will continue and the school fights will remain unresolved or undeterred with serious consequences for not only the students and schools concerned but the country.  

We have already seen serious casualties such as injuries or even death of students and burning down of classrooms and dormitories.  

What more do we need to realise that the school is actually turning out students who have mastered the art of being anti-social?

Illegal practices 

in schools

School fights or inter-school fights are just one of the many illegal practices occurring in our schools.  

Inter-school fighting is prominently featured because of the severe casualties (deaths of students) and permanent destructions (burning down of classrooms and dormitories).  

We will get back to school fights after we highlight several other illegal practices known to have taken place in schools.

Bullying

Bullying is an anti-social behaviour. Bullying is an illegal practice in schools. Bullying is common in PNG schools and elsewhere. 

Bullying is one of the reasons the victims leave schools because they are constantly bullied to a level where their interest in school diminished and they can’t take it anymore of the unpleasant experiences of harassment.  

Often bullying is caused by older and undisciplined students against timid and academically bright students. It’s the heavy-handed tactics used by the school bullies in their quest for power in the unofficial social structure of the class or school.  

Reporting such behaviour (bullying) to school authorities often results in the victims being further castigated and targeted in subsequent encounters, either in school or out of schools. 

• To be continued
•  
• Dr Musawe Sinebare was the former Secretary for Education.  He has held many management positions at University of Goroka, Eastern Highlands Provincial Administration and the National Research Institute. He was a Technical Advisor to the National Strategic Plan Task Force, for the Institutional Development and Service Delivery pillar.   He has written several books including the recent one on PNG Vision 2050.  The views, opinions, suggestions and imputations made here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions named or this Paper.