- Safiu Kehinde
Stakeholders in the education sector have called for the regulation of social media usage and parents’ supervision as part of the means to curtail the menace of signing-out celebration among graduating secondary school students.
This is coming under the heels of the viral videos and pictures of students holding wild celebrations at the conclusion of the West African Senior School Certification Examination, WASSCE, in June.
NPO Reported the circulation of videos and pictures of some of students engaging in gross misconduct.
Some male students were captured indecently touching their female colleagues who also appeared unbothered about the act.
Meanwhile, the post that drew most attention was a video of some of the students tearing their school uniforms and chanting inappropriate slogans linked to cultism.
The incident reportedly occurred in Ondo state with the students confirmed to be from Oyemekun Grammar School, Aquinas Secondary School, and CAC Grammar School.
In the wake of the incident, the Ondo State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology convened an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Akure with school administrators and other relevant stakeholders to address what it described as a serious breach of discipline.
Among the sanctions announced was the withholding of the WASSCE results and official school testimonials of the 17 identified students until further notice.
Their names will also be entered into the “black book” of their respective schools.
Several stakeholders in an interview with NPO Reports correspondent aired their opinions over the Ondo state’s decision
While commending the Ondo state government over the sanction, Dr. Ade Inasa-Thomas, a Mass Communications lecturer at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology, LASUSTECH, attributed the actions of the students to the recurring defilement of culture and values as well as the advancement in technology.
“I think that step is in order because the state government being responsible for law and order in that state, owes it as a responsibility to take that action their have taken.
“What was displayed in the video is a recurring defilement of culture and values by the way we overtime lower the bar in terms of what the norms of the society should be and what it ought not to be.
“It is also a fall out of advancement in technology, particularly the coming of social media and also because we have not been to control the social media space.’ Inasa-Thomas said.
On his part, Dr. Oladeji Akinola, the Chairman, National Association of Private Schools Proprietors, Odogunyan zone in Ikorodu area of Lagos, attributed the sign-out menace to the high tendencies of students capitalising on any lapses they spot in the administration of a school.
The Principal of Top Deal College condemned the conduct of the students which, according to him, defied their future and integrity.
‘These students always make use of lapses. Once they see that you are lagging behind, let’s approximate like about 0.5 percent, they will always want to make use of that opportunity.
‘What they did was not encouraging, something that has even defied their future and integrity.’ Akinola said.
The educationist identified the family as one of the contributing factors of the moral decadence displayed by the students during sign-out.
‘One of the problems is home. There is a saying that charity begins at home. Most of these children spend more hours at home than schools.
‘Some of the physiological exposures which is environmental exposure like church, mosque, friends, families, they get quickly initiated through those means.
‘Indeed, they will definitely have friends in school where they meet and discuss some things, but you cannot tell me that a child who is doing Yahoo is being trained from school.
‘There is no government or private school will set up such for the children. And there is no parent who will say I don’t know that my child is doing this.
‘The major problem that causes these teens misbehaviour is home where they are probably exposed to phones from childhood. The use of phones has really demoralise our teens.
‘Let start looking at how are their parents taking care of them? How are they looking after them? Father and mother will home as early as possible.
‘Once they come back from work, do they have time to ask questions? Are they monitoring them and managing their use of phones?’ He said.
Akinola also admitted to the impact of the school and environment where the students lived as part of the factors responsible for the menace.
He harped on the need for schools to be deliberate in instilling discipline and providing guidance for the students.
‘After home, you check the environment where they are coming from.
‘Thirdly, schools have a larger take in ensuring that the students are well monitored. Now Lagos state government said we should not use cain. However, we have ways we can control them. We need to properly watch them and give them intensive lectures.’ He said.
The school principal recounted his experience with his students who planned to join the sign-out trend after their final WASSCE paper.
He recalled how the students went to but the white shirts they intended to use for the occasion without informing him.
“They didn’t tell me because they know I will not accept it. I have like two students I planted to be giving to be giving me feedbacks on their activities.
“That is why all schools must have a kind of investigators within the class. It helps also.
“As a school owner, you must also be available for the students.
“Most of private schools put everything on the shoulder of an employed principal. It is not his business. Once the owner is always available, you will get some facts and the students and staff will be guided.
“Before they wrote their final paper, I called an emergency meeting. We praised God and prayed. Then I told them this school is against signing out. Their countenance changed but I educated them about signing out.
“I told them signing out means getting out of school. Signing out is not about finishing exam. You can sign out anytime. It may be through unwanted pregnancy or expulsion.
“You people that you are signing out that you are out of school, are you not going to the university? Why can you wait till then and do proper signout?’ He asked.
For Inasa-Thomas, the university lecturer attributed the menace of sign-out culture to lack of regulation of the social media space as well as the ineffectiveness of government policies on issues related to social media.
He called out institutions like the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, and the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, over their inaction in regulating the social media space.
‘The government should have done better. I think the application of cybercrime act is not what they should be doing in the way they are applying it now.
‘The way they are applying the cybercrime act is not what they should be doing. Rather than using it as instrument of vendetta, harassment of dissenting voices, they should apply it in the context of upholding our moral and cultural values.
‘What is the NCC, NIPTIA doing if they cannot help with age restriction, filtering, and ensuring that certain contents are not allowed or permitted to be shared on the social media?
‘There are several control mechanisms that can be used. Are they being well applied?
‘Meta, Facebook and Instagram owners, have their own policies that help to mitigate such practises. But in the real sense of it, from Nigerian context, I don’t think much is being done.’ He said.
Inasa-Thomas also reiterated the contribution of family to the menace as he talked down reality TV and lifestyle of celebrities as contributing factors.
‘For me, it doesn’t have anything to do on with the celebrities or what they project. I feel it has more to do with us because everyone of us we are product of home, a family. The root cause starts from home.’ He said.
Speaking from the perspective of parents, Engr. Kunle Arigbede, raised question over the impact of withholding results of the students will have in correcting the sign-out menace.
Arigbede harped on the need for the government to be proactive in addressing societal issues.
‘Looking at it critically, you will ask yourself that how far is withholding results of certain students go in correcting the menace, the level of decadence we have found ourselves in the name of sign-out.
‘I won’t say the government has not done well. They have done well, but sometimes, the approach we give to things are not proactive enough.
‘Government should look at proactive measures that can be put in place to ensure that this thing doesn’t raid its ugly head again.’ He said.
On the factors responsible for the spread of moral decadence amongst the younger generation, the father of three attributed the challenge to the environment citing the Social Learning theory propounded by Albert Bandura.
‘Everything that emanates from humanity, is most of the times traceable to a theory propounded by Albert Bandora. He called it theory of social learning.
‘People learn from their from the environment by imitating and copying. People copy from the society and their environment. The environment, for any child, starts from home.
‘The first environment for a child is the home. Then you now graduate to the school environment and then consider the society and Nigeria as a whole.’ He said.
Arigbede emphasised on the impact of the family on shaping the behaviour emulated by a child.
‘Like I said earlier, the first environment a child learns from is the home- the father and mother. That is a big issue on its own if you want to go into parenting styles.
‘That is even for children who have parents. What about children whose parents are separated. Children from broken homes? You may not really want to expect much from them when it comes to the ethics and lessons they ought to have been taught from home.
‘The home is a starting point for learning. What a child sees in the environment called hime matters a lot.’ He said.
On social media impact, Arigbede maintained that many contents on the platforms are not healthy for the growth of a child.
He also called for the regulation of the platform which he claimed to have been abused.
‘The social media platform is another crazy environment that children learn from subconsciously. Many of the things available out there are not healthy for proper growth of the mind of a child.
‘But because there are no checks and balances from the appropriate authorities to checkmate authorities, now we have also sort.
‘Now we have people claiming Mr. X AND Y TV on social media. We used to here of NTA, Channels Television, and all those big brands. But individuals now call themselves TVs.
‘That means nobody is controlling what we consume on the social media. It is a big factor because when there are no control, abuses are inevitable.
‘So, the social media have been bastardised because there is no control.
‘The authorities that are supposed to take charge of the social media and put measures in place to ensure that you can’t just cook any garbage at the corner of your room and dump it on social media on watch.’ He said.’