Teacher’s mind: Dealing with high school candidates’ indiscipline

In 2000, I was in my final year of secondary school. I was filled with an overwhelming (and unjustified) sense of importance and had hair so long you could hardly tell whether I was a student or a part time thug. Seven years down the road I am now a teacher and when I see students repeating my own old lousy behavior I pity them. I have seen students joining the school as humble innocents and slowly grow into maturity, only for some to degenerate into useless brats in their final year. Psychologists will be quick to explain this as merely a result of adolescent peer pressure in the school system. After enduring years as an inferior in the school hierarchy a student who makes it to senior year will want to be treated as a superior by the younger students. Candidates with such mindsets often degenerate into very unruly characters. They break school rules unreservedly, disrespect teachers and bully other students. When disciplined, many expect preferential treatment simply because they have to sit national exams at the end of the year. Here in Rwanda this situation is further complicated by the fact that candidates fill in their registration forms much earlier at the beginning of the year. So you find a scenario where a student behaves well until they get to senior three or senior six. At they point, they view the fact that have already filled in the registration forms as some sort of insurance that they are now untouchable. They falsely believe they are no longer under the jurisdiction of the school, and just answer to the examination council. The indiscipline that is often exhibited by students in candidate classes also extends to academics. It is very common to find these students dodging lessons with the excuse that they are studying for exams. Yet a teacher who makes an effort to continue teaching them does so all in the hope of helping them to perform well on their finals. They even refuse to take tests given in class, arguing that they only have time for the national exams. Unfortunately, when these students perform poorly in their final exams, they are quick to push the blame to their dedicated teachers who spent time running after them. The students often claim that such and such a teacher never taught us this or that topic. Much of this may be true, but such a student should think of the times they dodged lessons and tests with the false confidence, and thought everything was ok and the teacher simply a bother. Teachers should continue doing their best to inform students in candidate classes that they need to be very serious with their studies. These students need serious counseling. They are at a crucial stage in life. They need to perform well and proceed to the next level. The unruly behavior of most candidates is not a universal phenomenon. Some students still continue to behave quite well when they reach their final year in secondary school. They need to be protected from the unserious lot and used as examples to the rest. That said, school administrators should not hesitate to always punish errant candidate students because failure to do so sends the wrong message to others who may think that once one is in senior three or senior six, they are above the law. All students should be treated equally. Preferential treatment to the candidates gives the false impression that they are more important than the rest of the school. Parents should also play their role of and make sure their kids behave well in school and follow rules as expected. The indiscipline of candidates is often the primary cause for eventual failure in the same exams from which they assume to draw importance. Students need to know that in most cases, a boat capsizes at the shore. ssenyonga@gmail.com