Shaping the society we want

 All the illegal practices highlighted in this commentary like; bullying, cult practices, school fights, exam cheating, mobile phone abuses, and consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol are common in schools.  

These illegal practices are subject to the Behaviour Management Policy (BMP), where the school authorities such as the head teacher and the school boards are empowered to address the problems.  

Where the illegal practices are con­sidered ‘serious’, the matter is reported to police to handle under existing laws. 

Despite the existence of the BMP, the illegal practices are committed by the students.  

The school authorities are doing their best to address the problems. 

There is no sense of respect for the rule of law and lawful authority.  

The lack of respect for authority is the result of the existence of the cult groups, which promote the ‘value’ or belief that the only lawful authority that demand respect from is that of the cult group leader.  

This is a dangerous trend of development as all formal forms of authority such as teacher, head teacher, and boards etc. are not to be respected by the cult group members.

Students are recruited into cult groups and they swore allegiance to their cult group leaders during their initiation rites.  

There are indications that some of the teachers were former members of a cult group.  

Cult groups, through their intensive recruitment process, almost always ensure no student is left out during the recruitment process.  

That leaves no person without being aligned to or associated with a cult group.  

That means breaches of school rules in whatever way; shape or form, will continue to haunt the school management and teachers, much to the detriment of the society at large.

Conclusion    

A school is an institution where the society’s values are transmitted to the young. 

A school, as a formal institution, is transmitting the official or formal curriculum.  

The formal curriculum is a body of knowledge that contains the society’s values (what it considered to be very important for the young to acquire in order to survive in the changing environment).  

As we are too familiar, even when the official curriculum is delivered the ‘unofficial curriculum’ or hidden curriculum is delivered through unofficial means.  

The hidden curriculum is just as effective and pervasive in schools as the official one.

The hidden curriculum is just as prevalent and equally effective as the formal curriculum. 

The illegal practices highlighted here are an embodiment of the hidden curriculum and is therefore created by the environment the students live in or come from.  

The students’ behaviour is shaped by the social environment.  

Homes should be one of the environments that would help shape acceptable student behaviour but we know many homes have problems such as family breakdown, overcrowding with extended family members living in homes meant for nuclear family, and other social problems.

The different family and home environment shaped how individuals behave and interact with other people.  

The illegal practice, as the term suggests, is unlawful behaviour that society considers as unacceptable and   unlawful or ‘illegal’.  

There are acceptable community standards or behaviour such as respect for authority or the elderly.

Appropriate laws are there to ensure that the students with unacceptable behaviours (illegal practices) are dealt with.  

The school behaviour management policy is a set of policy guidelines set out to assist school authorities to manage student’s behaviours.  

The school management and boards have the power under this BMP and other laws and guidelines to discipline students with a view to reform their behaviours to be acceptable to the community at large.

Papua New Guinea must be prepared to manage students’ negative behaviours (especially illegal practices) and other disciplinary offences committed through discipline and counselling to reform the students’ general behaviour.  

Failing to reform the current students’ anti-social or criminal behaviours will have destructive consequences on potential future generation of leaders and workers. 

All stakeholders such as churches, teachers, school authorities (head teacher and boards) should see the illegal practices in the schools as an opportunity to shape the students who will eventually become a productive and law-abiding citizen in the future.

Now is the opportunity to take appropriate actions to provide all the help we can give to not only the students but the teacher, school authorities and the parents to take active interest in encouraging positive social behaviours and discourage negative or anti-social behaviour at those and in schools.

The PNG Vision 2050 aspires to create a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society in the year 2050 (merely 36 years away).  

A child who is 10-years-old now will be 46-years-old in 2050 and any child born in 2014 will be 36-years-old when they are supposedly making their contribution to PNG’s development in the form of taxes, if they are gainfully employed or are self-employed.  

When we condone illegal practices in schools then we are only demonstrating that we don’t care about what will arise from such practices and what impact it will have on PNG in future.  

Illegal practices actually destroy the young people long before they realise their full potential to make a positive contribution towards creating a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society.