IT was with some amusement and bewilderment that the nation on Monday learnt that some primary school students stole some $1.8 million from their hinterland school.
The story carried by this publication did not say how the act was committed, but from the source of the information, the Auditor General’s Report, the content appears to be accurate. Over the years, the school system like any other the world over, has faced challenges and these range largely from bullying to physical confrontation among students, but stealing huge sums of money is something up to the time of publication of the story was unheard of.
It would have been interesting to know how the money was stolen and why that much money was placed at the school and what measures were put in place to secure it, but some other questions also have to be asked on the action of the students.
Why would students between ages eight to 12 want to steal that much money? How did they get to know about the money? And how did their parents deal with the matter? From the Auditor General’s Report, the matter is engaging the attention of the court and some $700,000 has been repaid. The report also went on to say that the students’ parents had entered into an agreement to repay the amount stolen on a monthly basis.
This can be very burdensome if the parents are poor, in the sense that it will put additional strain on them to repay the stolen sum and meet the expenses of sending their children to school.
But at the heart of the matter is a moral issue. And one gets the sense that with proper instructions in morals, ethics and values in this fast-paced society, some of the misdemeanours that happen on a daily basis would be less, especially if it is imparted to people early in their lives.
It is for this reason that it will be important that good values, conduct and morals are taught as a mandatory subject in the school system and schools devote some attention in setting up religious societies to help impart this priceless knowledge. At the end of the day, it would be of useful help to administrators in the school system, since it would most likely result in more disciplined and dedicated students, and importantly, students will learn that acts of stealing are not only a crime against the State, but also a crime against God.
From the Auditor General’s Report, generally speaking, there seems to be a lack of proper accountability at schools in the hinterland regions. The auditor general observed that for all the schools visited, the receipts and payments cash books were not properly written up and there was a lack of segregation of duties in relation to the store-keeping procedures, while stock ledgers and goods-received books were not properly maintained.
“There was no evidence of the records being checked by any member of the management committee of the school… meetings were not held by the management committee,” the report said, adding that “the treasurers kept unspent balances in their personal possession and bank accounts were not reconciled for the period under review.”
And in one case, a headmaster was found to have misappropriated some $1.5M, which the government will be deducting from his gratuity. These matters point to the need for greater monitoring of schools by district and regional education officers and for head-teachers to take a more hands-on approach in the management of their schools.
The auditor general’s findings could also mean that head-teachers and senior teachers in the hinterland regions need training in management and administration. Here is where the Ministry of Education has an important role to play.
