THE RISE OF STUDENT STRIKES  IS A WAKE UP CALL FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS

We continue to witness many Student strikes in schools which  even have never had record of school strikes in their history. It’s erroneous for school administration and staff to attend to symptoms but not delving much into the causes of such strikes . School administration and staff only decide to suspend or expel Students and others are made to pay fines  for the property vandalised and believe the situation stops from there. Student strikes need a collective  and holistic approach to mitigate them.

Notably, these post Covid 19 Lockdown era learners under went alot during long spell of Covid 19 Lockdown. They watched movies that entailed pornography, homosexuality, drug and alcohol addiction and others watched violent films which all are impactful on their behaviour. Others were exposed to freedom and would visit bars, clubs play pool games , go for gambling/ betting , tasted on drugs, smoked , took booze and even others engaged in fornication.  Suffice to note, most parents are pre-occupied with work and rarely dig to find out what goes in lives of their children, parents are busy looking for money and don’t have time for their children. In same vein, when Children report to school, teachers invest much of their time in completing school syllabus on time and rarely read psycho-social and emotional instabilities of their learners and cause Counselling required. This resultantly leaves a learner in suspense and makes un informed decisions influenced by peer pressure. Parents have not inculcated virtues of self respect, being loyal to authority , embracing dialogue  amidst any crisis to their children.

 Students resort to violent strikes because they believe it’s only way to show their displeasure/ discontent . Students feel it’s their right to do what they want because parents nolonger have parental authority over them. Most families are permissive and Students see no sense to respect school authority or follow school rules and regulations because they are not used to such. A family is a first school to a learner.

What should be the best recourse to mitigate the rise of student strikes  in schools. School administrators and staff must accept that   post Covid 19 Lockdown era learners are completely different from those of pre Covid 19 Lockdown  period. The learners we have now  need more of listening ear than authoritative commands. They need to be listened to, need counselling and guidance . The design of school time table must accommodate extra curricular activities because learners’ concentration on academic work is low. The designers of school time table must balance  and fuse in extra curricular activities because it’s what students loved most during Covid 19 lockdown. Thus, a school that decides that school timetable should solely be academic; will get rejection from student Community fermenting into a strike. Schools must organise spiritual Retreats to reflect on their relationship with God, ask for forgiveness , meditate and be new beings , call educational motivational  speakers to redirect their attention to their life dreams, inculcate discipline and give them study  tips in such spiritual retreat. Organise workshops for prefectorial body to Know their roles, embrace dialogue and make use of channels of communication to forward any students’ grievances. Workshops for teachers on how best to handle post Covid 19 Lockdown era learners. Some of these teachers came out of Covid 19 Lockdown era depressed and want to transfer anger on learners through corporal punishments which meets rejection from Students. It’s like now having two mentally ill patients in one room. You inevitably expect chaos.

Parents in P.TA meetings must get Educational Guest speakers to remind them  on how they can solidly parent these Covid 19 Lockdown era children. For parents to Know they are first teachers to their children and a home is a first school. Parents must be inferably be reminded that it’s their cardinal duty  as parents to bring up morally upright children to be solid citizens.

To adumbrate it all, the rise of school strikes is an overtone that parents have not solidly parented their children , long spell of Covid 19 Lockdown has  had an impact on our learners’ behaviour and lastly, schools have not been inducted on how best to handle these post Covid 19 Lockdown era learners. These learners need Teacher – learner relationship, Parent – Child relationship  and individual attention coupled with Counselling  and guidance  more than before. It’s our generational responsibility as socializers  to these young  victims of long spell of Covid 19 Lockdown period. It’s possible.