Sunday, April 14, 2013

Thankful for what????


On March 12th, hundreds of primary and junior secondary school (JSS) students were flogged at Aberdeen Municipal School. The school administration systematically went from class to class and publicly humiliated students by calling their names from a list and whipping each student with a rattan cane four times on their buttocks in front of their peers.

The previous day, March 11th, the administration of the school announced they’d be having a “thanksgiving activity” on the 31st of March. Each of the 270 JSS students at the Aberdeen Municipal School was told to bring 20,000 Leones to the school. And, the over 800 students in the primary grades were told to bring 15,000 Leones. Apparently the school needs 17,500,000Le (seventeen million, five hundred thousand Leones) or approximately $4,000 to carry out this thanksgiving activity. On March 12th, the first day of mass floggings, most of the students had not brought their thanksgiving fees and were subjected to humiliation and torture. This is tantamount to extortion and blackmail of students and parents.

The administration further decreed that if students didn’t bring the money they would be flogged daily. Essentially, the majority of students will be flogged everyday from the 12th to the 30th of March. That’s 14 straight days of flogging… for hundreds of students.

According to the Child Rights Act of 2007:
33. (1) No person shall subject a child to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment including any cultural practice which dehumanises or is injurious to the physical and mental welfare of a child.
(2) No correction of a child is justifiable which is unreasonable in kind or in degree according to the age, physical and mental condition of the child and no correction is justifiable if the child by reason of tender age or otherwise is incapable of understanding the purpose of the correction.
(3) The Corporal Punishment Act is repealed.

Aberdeen Municipal School is a government school and is typical of many schools in Freetown. It is not a wealthy, private school. Many of the teachers are not paid. Learning resources are limited. Classroom furniture is scant. Play yards are barren. And, sanitation facilities fall grossly short of adequate. **quote from teacher** The school is located close to the Aberdeen Beach but is not in a posh or wealthy neighbourhood.

Parents of students at Aberdeen are generally not wealthy **quote from parent**.
Parents have to pay this money… when money, jobs, food, books, etc. are all costs they also have to cover.

Thanksgivings are part of a school’s activity although it’s not part of the official curriculum. Apparently, thanksgiving days are a normal part of a school’s activities… where the students sit through some sort of Christian church service and then parade through the streets of the neighbourhood. Students and parents are often forced to buy new shoes, new uniforms, hats, socks, etc. to facilitate this public display. Usually a marching band or two is hired for the day to parade with the students. Some of the students are asked to carry a banner at the front of the parade listing the school and class. There’s usually a great deal of hubbub and “practicing” associated with this activity – taking away valuable and much-needed time in the classroom for teaching and learning. Usually, the school is closed on the day following the parade to allow the students to “rest”… another missed day of curriculum delivery. By my rough calculations three school days are lost to this process. This is insane in a country where teachers routinely complain about the lack of time to address matters of curriculum.

What will happen to those families being forced to pay? Students will stay away from school – in this case for up to two weeks – thereby missing valuable learning time. Students will be afraid to attend classes knowing they’ll be flogged because they are poor and can’t afford the requisite thanksgiving fees. Parents will be badgered for money, which is in very short supply for many. Money normally spent on food, clothes, medications, etc. will have to be sent to school for the thanksgiving activities.

It’s not fair on families and students who can’t afford these extorted thanksgiving fees. Essentially, Aberdeen Municipal School, among others, is punishing students and their families for their inability to pay extraneous fees. In fact, it’s paramount to the discrimination of poor families. According to the Education Act of 2004:

4. (1) This Act and any other enactment and administrative instructions relating to education shall be administered and interpreted in such a manner as to ensure that there is no discrimination between pupils or students in the matter of their admission to and treatment in any educational institution in Sierra Leone…
4. (2) For the purposes of this section “discrimination” includes any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which, being based on race, colour, sex, disability, language, religion, political, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, has the purpose or effect of impairing equality of treatment in education at any level.

It’s time the Ministry of Education and all government schools rethink this waste of resources, money, time and attention. Thanksgiving activities may be a tradition but it’s a ritual that’s time has passed. Given the sorry state of education in Sierra Leone, it’s time for schools to refocus on the basics and the essentials, which do not include extorting money and wasting time on thanksgiving activities.

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