A victim of stabbing in school
Indiscipline is becoming a norm in public schools, a situation which must be arrested before things get out of hand.
Some might even argue that things have already gotten out of hand given the recent fatal stabbing of a student by his classmate at the Kinbu Senior High Technical School in Accra among other instances of indiscipline.
It was a needless murder which has expectedly left in its trail traumatised parents, students and the country as a whole.
That the suspect who is still at large had a sharp object on his body which he used for the stabbing shows how bad things have become in public schools and society in general.
A visit to TikTok will bring to the fore how things have descended in society.
Today, smart phones are no longer the preserve of the rich, children living in downtrodden parts of urban areas including rural parts having access to the gadgets. With these gadgets, there is no limit to how far they can go in their quests for adventure, good or bad.
Elsewhere at the University of Development Studies (UDS), a student has been sentenced to death for murdering a colleague.
At the Agona Swedru Senior High School, twenty-five students were sent home on suspension following a brawl over a same-sex proposal.
The whole scenario shows a worrying debasing of values in society, especially among students from second cycle to the tertiary level.
Social media, the two-pronged innovation, is playing out its good and ugly parts in a manner which can only be imagined.
While students in second cycle schools are not permitted to own mobile phones in schools, some of them hide the gadgets for their personal use. Some of them hire the gadgets for fees.
Following the Kinbu murder, students coming to school were thoroughly searched to isolate and confiscate offensive and dangerous objects. Perhaps had this been done on the fateful day, the fatality would not have happened.
Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, has been infested with opioid abuse lately, incurring for the city a bad press. So bad is the situation that residents in some suburbs of the city have formed volunteer groups to identify sellers and cause their arrests by the police.
The contribution of the voluntary groups might be small, but it is nonetheless better than just folding arms passively as the youth are destroyed by foreign influences via social media.
A major bust of an opioid supplier recently in Tamale opened further the extent to which drug abuse has been entrenched in some parts of this country.
Occasional busts take place, but these are not enough to stop the trafficking of drugs, some of which are done through trans-border movement of goods.
In some cases in Accra, the drugs —Tramadol and Red are smuggled into the country through grain imports from nearby countries like Niger.
Parents, teachers, the clergy and imams all must join hands in this important crusade against drug trafficking and its abuse. Not doing anything about the situation is not an option for all who cherish the future of this country.