Secondary School life! Bitter-sweet times
Many believe that life in the senior high school is a very difficult phase for teenagers as quite a number of them struggle to juggle between the demands of classes, homework, socialising and making new friends, as well as managing their time.
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Indeed, this is the period that most adolescents try to figure out who they really are in the face of peer pressure.
A lot of adults have confessed that it was in high school that they built friendships which had lasted their lifetime, yet they also pointed out that it was during those days that they were their naughtiest. In a nutshell, secondary school life can be described as exciting, confusing and bitter-sweet.
The Graphic Youth World, therefore, sought to seek the views of students and others who had gone through secondary education to share their views on the effects it had had on them.
Reactions of students
Bridgette Obori-Larbi who attended the New Juabeng Secondary Business School, Koforidua, said secondary school inculcated in her the habit of praying which had been a large part of her life till date.
“Before I went to SHS, I had heard of ‘Madam High Heel’ so in order not to have an encounter with her, I prayed seriously all the time.
“So, it was in secondary school that I learnt that God really listens to our prayers, she said.
Ohene, an immediate past student of Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, said he saw life in secondary school as a mini version of the real world since one met different people from varied backgrounds which made one gain some experiences, both good and bad ones.
“I think SHS has made me a better person than I was and I believe I have learnt important values to help me survive in the real world,” he said.
Kwabena, an SHS graduate from Kumasi, said he learnt how to smoke weed in SHS.
He said when he went to Form One, he had two school fathers, one was good and God-fearing but the other, who introduced him to smoking, was among a gang of boys who smoked weed.
“I was the one who was sent to buy the weed. I jumped over the school wall to buy it in town and in no time, I was smoking too.”
“Since I was an athlete, I felt it helped me anytime I needed to run for my House or school. I was later caught by a teacher who saw the potential in me and did not report me to the authorities because that would have caused my expulsion from school.”
“He took me under his wing and monitored my every move in school so I was forced to turn over a new leaf. I am thankful to that teacher because but for him, I would have been a drug addict now,” he said.
Constance Kwateng, who was a student of the Seventh Day Adventist Senior High School (SDA), Koforidua-Asokore, said in SHS One and Two, she was an excellent student until she joined a group of girls who were known to be notorious when she got to SHS Three.
She confessed that she and her friends used to run to town and often broke school rules, adding that, “at the time, I never thought of the consequences. I thought I was just enjoying my life. After the WASSCE, I realised what a fool I had been because now I have to rewrite my papers. My parents are so disappointed since most of my friends are in the university. I wish I could turn back the hands of time but it is too late now.”
Parents
Maame Tanowa, a parent in Accra said, secondary school changed her daughter for the better.
She explained that before her daughter entered SHS, she had to be told everything before she did them. She never used her own initiative to do anything but all that changed with time.
“Secondary school made her independent and she is now a changed person. I think the type of schools children attend also plays a large role in how they turn out. Schools with good supervision and counselling are able to support students better,” she stated.
Teachers
“As teachers, most of us forget that senior high school is part of the formative years of students and what happens there will have an effect on them in future,” said Mrs Diana Addai, a teacher of the Oyoko Methodist Senior High School, Koforidua-Oyoko.
“I have noticed that students who are not exposed to the outside world before they come to school are the ones who are easily influenced by others, so depending on the kind of group they find themselves in, they either go astray or mould their lives in ways which are positive,” she added.
Mrs Addai observed that teachers liked students who were good academically, and often ignored the recalcitrant students and said that was one of the reasons why such students become worse by the time they were through with their high school education.
“Sometimes what such students need is someone to give them a little attention to help them turn their lives around but when that is lacking, the child continues in the cancerous relationships which eventually destroy their bright future,” she added.
She said if all teachers would realise that secondary school could make or unmake students, they would put in a lot of effort to help mould the lives of such impressionable teenagers and suport them to be the best that they could be.
Psychologist
In an interview with a Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Dr Emmanuel Asampong, he said the adolescent stage was generally a turbulent period for young people since that was the time they tried to find out who they really were.
“So if they are in school and fall into bad company they learn from those friends and it is the same if they find good company”, Dr Asampong stated.
Dr Asampong advised that, parents must get closer to their children so they would be able to confide in them rather than turn to their friends who do not know anything.
“Also parents should not see their adolescent children as the children they used to be but young adults so they can better communicate with them,” he added.