Africa: St. Andrew ‘B’ Junior High School in Ghana
The state prevailing during the absence of war is peace. It also means the absence of violence. Peace is one virtue that is desired by every society for development. It is a state of quiet and calm. Various situations and circumstances accounts for whether peace or discord will prevail within any society.
In every organization there is either peace or discord. Many agencies the world over work very hard to ensure peace in the world we live in but, in our small way we can all do our little to get peace established.
Like any other human institution our school experiences its fair share of peace and discord. Situations that have contributed to the peace we enjoy include a routine gathering of students every morning at an assembly ground for a Christian morning prayer to be said though the students’ population include other religious believers. On every Wednesday and Friday students gather again for a Christian worship service and learn hymnals. These activities are compulsory for all. Not only does it ensure that students gather, it has established a fine culture making students from varied backgrounds to tolerate one another.
Even though a protestant school, during choice of student leaders we do not entertain discrimination. The chance is given equally to all who have interest in contesting and students vote on who they think can lead them.
In classrooms students are made to share desks. Seating arrangements allow for diversity: students with different orientations and beliefs sit next to one another and may constitute a group for any group work or exercise.
Consciously, school programs are drawn in a way that favours all persons. It reflects a levelheaded staff that want to ensure peace at all times. But, it does not necessarily mean no sign of discord.
As the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s dictionary defines it- discord is a lack of disagreement or shared opinion. In other words, people’s individual divergent view on matters result in discord.
A situation in our school, for instance, whose responsibility it is to clean the school compound every morning before start of school. Is it those that report to school early in the morning or those who report in late? In addition, the question of whether students are permitted to wear long hair to school or must have them trimmed.
We strongly hold the view that the school authorities should continue in this trajectory and equally fine tune some of the disciplinary measures of the school to further establish peace in the school.
To the extent that government policies does not seek to discriminate against any particular group peace would always prevail. Yet, government may want to actively attend to some nuances which spells discord in our educational institutions.
This text was written by a group of students from St. Andrew ‘B’ Junior High School in Ghana, accompanied by Bismark Darkwah.
