Editorial(The Daily Searchlight, November 10, 2021)
A first-year student of the Odumase Secondary School has been killed by a fellow student. The incident occurred whilst the second year students were trying to ‘indoctrinate’ (a process called ‘homoing’ in our schools) first year students into the school.
Traditionally, that activity has always involved some harsh conditioning, often accompanied by violence. Once in a while, first year students can be injured, and in extreme cases, killed, as in this incident. It is basically bullying, and can be carried to the extreme.
The incident should bring to the fore whether Ghana should continue with the boarding school concept as inherited by the nation from its colonial masters. Whilst bullying will always take place, the fact of removal and isolation engendered by being isolation and being away from home, for both the person being bullied and the individual doing the bullying, can have extreme consequences.
A boarding school is an institution where children live within premises while being given formal instruction. The students are away from home. The word “boarding” is used in the sense of “room and board“, i.e. lodging and meals. Ghana inherited this concept as a consequence of its early British rule, and this has not seen any rethink.
The Daily Searchlight wonders as to the justification of gathering thousands of young people, for several months at a time, at one place, under the same set of conditions, in the name of education. Certainly, one cannot subject these children to the level of supervision needed.
We believe that Ghana should subject the boarding school concept to a serious debate and come to a position that supports the developmental, social and economic aspirations of the nation Ghana.
Indeed, there is absolutely no reason why students cannot attend school from the house, as they did at primary and junior high school level, at the secondary and tertiary level.
We believe that as much as possible, ‘boarding’ should be reduced to the barest minimum, to avoid unfortunate situations as what happened at Odumase.
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