Richard Akumbasi, Upper East Regional Chair for the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), has highlighted the role of families and communities in addressing rising indiscipline among senior high school students in the region. He spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
Mr. Akumbasi said many student disturbances are cyclical, noting that schools often deal with symptoms rather than root causes. “There’s a common saying that when you stumble and fall, don’t look at where you fall. Look at where you stumble,” he said. “Students riot here, the next day they are also there. Where do we get our students? We get our students from their families. We get our students from the community.”
He described children roaming communities late at night, often without parental supervision. “Walk to some communities at midnight, and you see students or children of school-going age roaming and doing their own things as if there’s nobody in that village,” Mr. Akumbasi said. “Some parents are sleeping in different places, and their children are sleeping elsewhere, staying with friends who influence them to do whatever they want.”
Mr. Akumbasi warned that harmful behaviors, including drug use, begin at home and carry into schools. “The smoking of weed, the taking of drugs, it is done at the community level, at home, and they carry those things into the school. Now it is the symptoms that show in school,” he said.
He also raised concerns about dangerous substances disguised as beverages. “These days you see young boys gathered, drinking coke or energy drinks. That energy drink can last 10–20 minutes normally, but they can handle it for an hour,” Mr. Akumbasi said. “It tells you it’s not regular energy drink. It is laced with strong drugs and powerful chemicals. They sip it to stay high, topping it up when they feel its effects.”
Mr. Akumbasi urged all community leaders, parents, and chiefs to be proactive in shaping children’s behaviors. “Characters are formed at home. By senior high level, students have already developed certain habits and behaviors, and schools often feel helpless because these patterns are deeply entrenched,” he said.
He concluded that collaboration between families, schools, and communities is critical to tackling student indiscipline in the Upper East Region.
Source: A1 Radio | 101.1 MHz | Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith | Bolgatanga
