BY Amiel M. Fagbulu
January 2014, there were skirmishes in some schools in the State of Osun when children belonging to different religious denominations went confrontational and in defiance of the laid down rules came to school wearing their cassocks, hijab, and religious traditional wears of sorts. According to reports, the peace of the school was disturbed and gross irresponsibility took over while the school authorities and parents who apparently instigated the rebellious act looked on in glee.
Various interpretations were given to that event, each skewed to promote the favored political or religious agenda of the reporter. In turning that breach of peace into a political soap opera, the jaundiced views of those reporting, irrespective of whatever coloration they gave to it, missed the greatest import of that tragi-comical display. In their attempt to discredit the governor of the State, some were led to propagate moronically that the hijab was an attempt to Islamize schools in the State. They are back at it again claiming that the governor had by proclamation made it compulsory for the hijab to be won in schools.
The Muslim community that felt that its rights were infringed headed for the courts and now in June 2016 that a court judgement has been delivered that the hijab could legitimately be adorned and worn to school, the Christian mission associated with the school has shown total disregard for the laws of the country and has gone back to its mischievous ways. The non-Muslim students in the school had a field day coming to school in all sorts of dresses turning the school once more into a carnival of clowns. The only ‘religious’ dress genre absent at school that day was the blood and cowry-covered tunic of Sango worshipers complete with the diminutive double-edged axe. The outfits of the masquerades that accompany Sango were also fortunately missing.
The endorsement of the bad behavior of the children by the principal of the school was patent in his pronouncement that because the children clad in buffoonish robes were in class working peacefully together, all was well. The competence of the School Board also was put in doubt by its failure to pronounce firmly that impunity and defiance were gross acts of indiscipline in schools that were damaging to the proper upbringing of the children. A competent court had given its ruling, right or wrong, and all that an educated body had to do was to challenge that decision legally in court if it felt dissatisfied. Rather than do what is right, the Christian parents allowed their children to don all sorts of dress to school in clear defiance and disregard of the rule stipulating what dress children could wear to school. Not a word of admonition has been heard from CAN about the irresponsible behavior the school.
The State Government on its side has not taken firm action to enforce the laid down rules. While some may see as wisdom the reticence of the State Government in not coming down hard on the misbehavior of the children as condoned by the head teacher and school authorities, others including the religious fanatics that want a show-down will take further advantage of this matured approach and be emboldened to encourage the children to wear more garish and horrid dresses to school next time they feel like ruffling the feathers of the government and causing mayhem in the State.
In spite of the cautious inaction of the government that in fact owns the school, the rumor mill is churning out the propaganda that the State is at it again wanting to Islamize the schools. Maybe the governor should do the right thing which is to uphold discipline and not bother about political correctness which is to condone impunity in our schools. Schools are sanctuaries where children are supposed to be cocooned for a few hours every day to enable teachers to expose them to carefully selected experiences calculated to negate some of the undesirable acts that bombard learners daily in the community from which they derive. By focusing on the politics and the blame-game and failing to analyze and condemn the unacceptable lawlessness of the children the sanctity of the sanctuaries has been violated and dealt a grave blow. Turning the traditional school assembly into a carnival is a desecration of the time-honored ritual of sober reflections and belonging that all students share at morning assembly.
School governance provides clear guidelines for dealing with such ugly situations and any principal that does not know what to do must kiss his job goodbye at least for sometime so as to get retrained and be better prepared for the thunder next time. Also, the School Management Board must be held accountable for failing to act promptly to quell the rebellion.
Governments no doubt have rules if not laws that guide what can be worn to school. Once that is the case,those children who out of mischief or misdirection turn their schools to fun-parks should be dealt with very firmly according to existing rules. Children like the rest of us have no rights to take the laws into their hands.
In all these, what schools stand for is the dishing out of good education. Governance should use that as the guiding light in solving day-to-day problems that should not take over the central focus of schooling which is to educate. CAN should know better.
*Fagbulu writes from Irojo, Ilesa.