The issue of morality in schools especially at the pre-tertiary level is becoming alarming. Unless something drastic is done about the deteriorating situation and now, it would be too late to restore our values.
A prima facie case has been established against nine tutors of the Ejisuman Senior High School in the Ashanti Region: they are alleged to have been engaged in sexual intercourse with the female students in the school.
Having sex with the girls is as bad as using enhanced examination marks as baits. For those who are lazy – what a way to avoid studying hard when they can easily satisfy the libido of unscrupulous tutors for good marks.
Such tutors should be educated about what it means to build a country. It is so irresponsible to hear teachers who are paid from the public purse to inculcate discipline in young senior high school girls rather leading them down the route of indiscipline.
Their interdiction is a step in the right direction but we are worried about what happens in other schools which we are not privy to. The Ejiisuman Senior High School is definitely a tip of the iceberg. The authorities in conjunction with parents should take interest in the relationship between their wards and tutors in senior high schools.
We heard about the stool sex story a few months ago in which a head teacher and a pupil were having affairs surreptitiously in a school in the Central Region.
We have also heard about how a chief bought a mobile phone for a school girl with a view to chatting with her at night when the town is asleep.
There is a disconnect between our religious authorities, Christianity and Islam and our pre-tertiary institutions; a shortcoming we must address forthwith.
Smart phones powered by a crazy social media world have expedited the deterioration of our moral fibre as a society and it continues with nobody able to predict what tomorrow holds for us.
With mobile phones, girls are able to communicate with the bad nuts in the teaching profession arranging through the medium where to meet for their immoral escapades.
The situation is not hopeless. We can do something about it when we come together as a people. Teachers, parents, opinion leaders and religious leaders have to reverse the situation before it becomes too late.
Head teachers must be culpable too when their teachers engage in such abominable acts. Their supervisory roles must not be ignored.
Parents must educate their daughters about how to determine the dangerous overtures of bad teachers and what to do under the circumstances. They must know about the fact that some of those who teach them are very bad and should be reported to the head teachers.
They should be taught to avoid the baits they present to them and to be encouraged to study hard and earn the marks they deserve.
School heads must find ways of finding out when teachers become generous with the marks they award female pupils or students and to take appropriate action when aberrations are discerned.
At the end of the investigations those found culpable should be named, shamed and dismissed from the teaching service because they are unworthy of being there.