Chioma Igbokwe
The last has not been heard of what has become of the primary school children in Lagos State who were recently arrested by the police over cult related activities as the state Education District 1 has amongst other punitive measures made a new rule that will force parents of such children to participate in whatever punishment that is meted out to their erring children.
Saturday Sun recently reported the unusual activities of pupils of Community Primary School, Egan, in Alimosho area of Lagos State who were allegedly initiated into Awawa confraternity group by a syndicate recently busted by the State police command.
According to police investigation, members of the syndicate that specialize in initiating primary and secondary school students into Awawa had, so far, succeeded in initiating 12 children, aged 8-16, of the school located in a densely populated area.
Their secret was unearthed recently when the school guidance and counseling teacher, out of curiosity demanded to know how one of her students, Rasheedat Salami, sustained a mark on her jaw. The encounter took place after school.
The pupil let the cat out of the bag when she disclosed that it was an incision made on her jaw on the day of initiation. She was said to have lured others in primary 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 into being initiated into the cult.
Going tough
The new rule was made known to Saturday Sun correspondent by Mrs. Olufolayimika Ayandele, the Permanent Secretary and Tutor General of Education District 1 when asked what had become of the affected children.
According to Ayandele, as soon as they heard about the story, the district conducted its own investigation and discovered that the sad development was true. “The Ministry of Education and the District conducted our various investigations and in the process the students and their parents were invited. We discovered that those involved were mostly children in the primary school and one girl from the senior secondary school.
“Our main target is to stabilize the children and find an appropriate process to effect behavioral change. We moved in several social workers into that school, because it’s a high possibility that there could be other children who have not been detected. As we speak now, the social workers are there monitoring them and ensuring that whatever behavioral changes that can be done within the shortest possible time.
“It is the responsibility of the social workers to in the process of attending to the affected students extend their counseling duties to the other children in that school. They are to understudy the children and proffer solutions to avoid a reoccurrence in that school or any of our schools in the state.”
When confronted with the possibility, that teachers in the school were careless, Mrs. Ayandele who described the incident as unfortunate said that the department has been doing its best to curb some of the vices that children bring to the schools from their respective homes. “It is not as if we were totally unaware that such could happen, the fact remains that we have been curbing it. Children will always be children; they pick up various vices and come up with various games. “Initially, they don’t come to the children as cultists, they come to them in various ways which whenever we hear of it we follow them up to their homes. This particular case went too deep before we heard of it. We have been combing schools ensuring that we are managing their behaviourial changes. Our own is not only palliative but to delve into the root of whatever might have been the cause of misbehavior in our children.”
Targeting parents
On the measures on ground to restore or maintain discipline in public schools, Mrs. Ayandele said that there is a new rule on ground that ensures that the parents are made to witness any sort of punishment meted out to their children. “We have a new punitive measure that was introduced to help check their excesses. If a child commits a serious offence, he or she will be punished in the presence of their parents. That child will wear a special uniform meant for offenders. No child wants to wear that uniform. Your parents will be expected to sit with you under the sun while you attend to your punishment while others are in class. In this discipline, we involve parents, parents are invited and their children are disciplined in their presence. Depending on the gravity of the offence it could last for two days.
“Parents are also expected to come back to school and monitor them when they are writing the lesson notes that they missed because of the punishment. We are indirectly involving the parents to be part of the molding of their children’s behaviour. Naturally, no parent will be happy to leave his work to come and sit with a child because of an offence. You will find out that such a parent will use that opportunity to make the child realize that such behaviour will not be tolerated.
“Parents now warn their children to desist from such act as they do not want to be invited to school for the wrong thing. Discipline is no longer left with the school, once we notice any negative behavioural expression, we at the district level will be alerted. We don’t believe in beating children because it hardens them the more. Once in a while we give erring pupils one or two strokes of the cane for offence that is not too serious. We believe when a child misbehaves, you speak to the mind not the physical body. It has worked for us. If you visit our schools, you will not see children roaming about. You will not know that a school has about 5000 children till it’s time for break.”
She assured Lagosians that the public school is still the best place to educate a child. “The kind of risk we have in Nigeria today can happen anywhere whether in private or public school even at home. It is our collective responsibility to help mould our children into better persons. Let us appreciate the present government because despite all odds, we can sleep with our eyes closed.”
Excelling amidst negative perception
She said that one of the reasons public schools are seen as bad is because no one is interested in celebrating the uncountable positives that happen in the schools. “Our children under this district are excelling. We monitor their progress even after they have graduated from our secondary schools. This year, about 200 of our students went into the university directly from SS3. Every January, we bring them together and celebrate them. The best graduating student is in the faculty of medicine, one Miss Yakubu Jemilat.
Even for internal control and motivation, all children who won awards, at state, national or international level, we celebrate them and give them ambassadorial badges. Last year, we had over 500 of them including those who went to represent Nigeria at the world Olympia aerobatic in Thailand. We were second in Africa and for soccer, we have been winning male championship for GT bank. That competition was for both private and public schools. In February our children sat for a competition organized by the University of Delaware, USA and they came second.”
New Egan community
Meanwhile, at the affected school, it appears that it is no longer business as usual. Screening before access into the school has been intensified while at the time of visit, no child was found loitering around as against how it was during the last visit.
One of the teachers who spoke with Saturday Sun correspondent said that the number of guidance and counseling teachers in the school had increased to six and they no longer come to school to sleep. They go round and personally monitor the children and organize talks in batches. “It’s not about gathering the whole school and addressing them while half of the students are distracted. This time around, they pick the pupils in groups of 20 to have eye contact with each of them. Those who are not doing well in school are automatically sent to their department for follow up, this is because most of them are affected by crisis at home. We follow them up and invite their parents. Things have changed around here because that report caused a lot of problem for us the teachers in the school. Nobody wants to loose his or her job”, the teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity said.