Teachers In Public School Raise Alarm Over Increasing Rate Of Teenage Smokers

Teachers in public secondary schools in Ogun state are worried over the increasing rate at which teenage girls are engaging in smoking.

Recently no fewer than three ( 3) videos surfaced online which showed girls in secondary schools smoking while filming themselves as they felt ecstatic smoking shisha.

The girls were seen holding hoses to inhale from the hookah and puffing up dense smoke, the girls who are believed to be in their teens got ecstatic , singing and basking in the euphoria of intoxication before the camera.

The most recent video of such to grace the social media space was that of students of the popular Abeokuta Girls Grammar School (AGGS), Onikolobo.

It was gathered that one of the girls is daughter of a justice in the Ogun State Judiciary, in whose house the ugly incident was alleged to have taken place.

Earlier, a girl was captured on camera, smoking right inside the classroom in Sagamu. Also, another group of girls had converged in a room to sate themselves with shisha flavour, puffing thick smoke into the air from both their mouth and nostrils.

Despite this happenings the Ogun State government has refrained from speaking out on measures it is putting in place to stem this ugly tide, even as teachers berate the government’s policies that made them handicapped in instilling discipline in their erring students.

When reached, the state commissioner for education, science and technology, Professor Abayomi Arigbabu said he would not divulge the state’s strategic plan in addressing the rising level of indecent behaviour amongst students.
He said, “We are taking steps to address it. We are taking a number of steps, just be monitoring what is going on. I don’t want to be talking, I mean, everybody is calling me here and there. You will be seeing what we are doing. There will be releases from the ministry. Okay? Thank you.”

But teachers under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) in Ogun state blamed parents and the government for happenings in Ogun state public schools at the moment.
The ASUSS chair, Comrade Akeem Lasisi, in an interview with news correspondents described the situation as saddening saying, ” what we are witnessing in our schools today is as a result of the collapse of core values in the society.”

According to Lasisi, the present crop of students have been indoctrinated by the society that they would not make it in life unless they engaged in social vices.

He said, ” They students have been sold with the lies of Yahoo-Yahoo, they don’t believe in perseverance anymore. They want themselves to be recognized in the school. They want to be identified as the ‘big boys’ and ‘big girls’ in the school. It is as a result of the collapse of the core values in society.

“Students are no longer ready to learn, they only want to engage in all these illicit activities that will enable the society recognise them as the big boys and girls. The reasons are not far-fetched, it is because the society too only recognises those adults with unruly behaviours. They believe nobody will recognise them if they are of good conduct in the society.

“Moreover, these students are not fools, they are aware of the happenings in the larger society, in the government circle where government gives amnesty to terrorist, where they negotiate with kidnappers and so on . These students want to resemble them,” He said.

Mr Lasisi reiterated that teachers in schools do not have the political power to stop these social vices, saying not even principals can exercise full authority when it comes to punishing an erring student.

“We teachers are trying to do our best, but you know we don’t have the political will to stop the menaces. The teachers are already handicapped because we are in fear to exercise full authority on the students. You can not exert punishment on the students any longer because of the aftermath. Parents will have the guts to bring hoodlums to school and harass teachers and even the school head for disciplining a student.”

The ASUSS chairman went further to state that , “The solutions to these problems are many, it only depends on the government’s perspective. In the first instance, parents need to wake up to thier responsibilities because some parents have these notion that their children or ward is above them, they have already surrendered their roles to their children.

“The teachers are already over-stretched in the schools. Parents should imbibe moral attitudes in the children. Also government has to set up guidance and counselling units in all our schools that will be manned by professional counselors to guide and counsel them properly.

“The PTA (parents and teachers association) also need to be empowered. It is no longer buoyant financially and any group or association that is not financially bouyant will be inactive.

“Government can also equally introduce military or paramilitary officers to maintain discipline in our schools as it was done in the early 80s and late 70s where we had military officers in schools.

“On the issue of corporal punishment, I think it’s high time government reviews this policy. We are not saying corporal punishment should be totally imposed in our schools but those aspects of corporal punishment that will only correct the wrongs of students should be reintroduced.

“In the olden days we had students who cleaned schools, students who were caned and asked to uproot trees as punishments for a misdid and the students won’t go home reporting to their parents because they knew the punishment was in good fate.

“But these days the reverse is the case, because students would go home and report to their parents and parents will come to school to mete out punishment to such a teacher not minding the offence committed by the student. Government needs to put in place measures to check all that.”, He said.