Teachers' and students' perception of indiscipline in senior secondary schools: A case study of Sunyani Secondary School

Abstract

Indiscipline in schools is a major concern of parents, teachers, students and all those who are involved in the education of the child. The spate of indiscipline in schools, in the home, at work places and on the roads is a concern of everybody in Ghana. The campaign against indiscipline by the vice-president of Ghana goes to confirm that there is indiscipline in the country. The study investigated the perceptions of teachers and students on indiscipline in Senior Secondary Schools with Sunyani Secondary School as a case study. Thus the research design was to find out the views of students and teachers of Sunyani Secondary School on the state of discipline in the school. Two hundred and sixteen students out of the student population of 1440 made up the students' sample for the research whilst 36 teachers were sampled out of the 64 teacher population. The sample for the students was drawn through a random sampling technique and the sample for each class was distributed according to programme of study and the number of students in each department. On the other hand, purposive sampling was used to select the teachers by picking those who hold position in the school as house masters, heads of departments guidance and counseling coordinators and assistant head masters. The instrument for the study was a questionnaire for both the teacher and student respondents. An item by item analysis of data was made using frequencies and percentages. It was found from the study that indiscipline is really on the increase and the most common forms of indiscipline in the school were stealing, cheating in examinations, sexual misconduct and going out of school without permission, and these also occurred often in the school. With acts of indiscipline there were divergent views. The teachers and students did not share similar views on the wearing of unapproved dresses; when the teachers thought it was a serious problem, the students thought otherwise. The study again revealed that school rules did not have much influence on the students so as to cause indiscipline in the school. The study rather found that there was the need for external control in ensuring discipline in the school. The respondents preferred corrective measures to punitive measures in ensuring discipline. It is better to reward students and counsel offending students rather than punish them. A suggested means of ensuring discipline in the Sunyani Secondary School, which is quite close to the Sunyani town, is the fencing of the school. Again the study revealed the need to invite parents of wrong doers to meet the headmaster for discussions, and for strengthening the guidance and counseling department to work more effectively.