Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
Stakeholders in the education sector have blamed poor parenting for the moral decadence threatening to destroy youths in the country.
The stakeholders who spoke during a RayPower FMs virtual discussion on the topic ‘Growing Moral Decadence in Classrooms and the Blame Game’, blamed parents who have relegated parenting to home helps and teachers.
The registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, a guest at the programme, stated that parents failed to provide their children with the support and guidance needed for their proper growth and development and advised them to do better in raising morally-sound children.
He urged all parents to stand up to the responsibility of taking care of their children, maintaining that no parent should bring a child into the world if they are not ready to take care of it.
“I am a believer of the fact that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. Children should be disciplined. Corporal punishment is allowed in schools. The law recognises it,” said Ajiboye. “However, there are people to administer that; either the principal or the vice principal. If we generally abandon the rod, what is happening now will be a child’s play to what will happen in the future.”
However, Prof. Mopeola Omoegun, a fellow of the Counselling Association of Nigeria, disagreed with Ajiboye on the issue of corporal punishment, adding that it harms children.
While suggesting measures like denial and time out to help straighten a child, Omoegun spoke of the need for parents to begin early to teach the children sex education to enable them to know and report any sexual abuse.
She, however, added that children could not approach their parents to discuss issues bothering them unless the parents create time for them and make them their best friends and confidants.
A public affairs analyst, Francesca Ogulade, lamented that the value system in recent times has shifted from hard work and integrity to inordinate pursuit of money.
