Yemisi Izuora
Poised to ensure excellence with their wards, the Parents/Teachers Association ( PTA ) of the Air Force Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos has reiterated its commitment to the issues of discipline ,pure character molding and better academic excellence in the school.
The parents stated this in a communiqué issued by the parents/teachers association and signed by the Chairman AFSS PTA, Mr. Ayoola Badejo after its emergency meeting to address emerging patterns of gross indiscipline amongst senior students of the school and complaints of excessive canning of students as punishment for misconduct by students
According to the statement, AFSS, Ikeja remains a secondary school of excellence amongst its peers. and stressed that issues of discipline still remains key element of building up the children and preparing them for their future.
The PTA noted that the schools authority must refrain from meting out excessive punishment to students, especially excessive canning to correct misdemeanour and infractions of the rules and the regulations of the school by students.
The PTA condemned some emerging issues among the students which borders on few students showing traits of been members of an emerging cult group called “the Marlians”
They expressed displeasure that the marlians have characteristics that include – Must be a drop out of school;. no use of belts;No wearing of pants and bras on specific days of the week; No respect to adults or age; amongst others.
They therefore agreed that parents need to pay more attention to their children as the children spend more time with their parents than in school and mandated the school management to do everything possible to ensure students do not become members of the marlians group as stated.
The meeting condemned in no certain terms, the parents that sponsored the publication of distorted facts on social media and newspapers of the incident that happened in the school, as it was established that no sick student was canned during the exercise.
Also Parents who sponsored the postings on social media, were enjoined to go back to undo what they have already done, that is to restore the image of the school
The house commended the Commandant for sponsoring the Commandant’s examinations in English and mathematics for the examination classes at his own expense and agreed that, the Commandant is the father of all the students in the school.
The Commandant apologized to the parents and gave assurance that, such will not happen again as the school’s counselling unit would be more involved in helping the children turn a new leaf.
It was noted that, the students at a meeting they initiated with the Commandant, apologized to the Commandant for their misbehaviour and thus reconciled with the Commandant.
The meeting also agreed that Students misbehaviour should be brought to the attention of parents by the school before things get out of hand and that, parents should deploy all internal channels to resolve any issue that may arise in the future rather than run to the press which is destructive.