THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY AMONG FINAL YEAR

‘Nothing predicts future behaviour as much as past impunity’. Jane Mayer an American renowned journalist made this physiological statement to throw spotlight on the catastrophic upshots when this culture of impunity rises in institutions, people, social entities, etc of which the school and its students are of no exception.

The culture of impunity at hand is when people have come to believe that, they can do whatever they want without having to face the consequences of their actions.

Out of the blue, this pervasive culture has become typical of final year students at the secondary cycle, which is premised on diverse factors as the basis for its causes in parallax with its detrimental effects.
The concept of impunity predominates among students entrenched by various interrelated factors.
A predominate cause of this ordeal is the inordinate systems of administration of some school authorities. This prevails along two sided dimensions.

Firstly, is the forceful nature of the system’s institutional codes. Their codes of discipline is that of imposition rather than cooperative administration. Sometimes, their quest of ensuring discipline ends up creating numerous mayhems along the line.

Final year students at their adolescence stages develops psychological feature of self independence. This psychological factor is what contrasts sharply with the authorities imposition demands. The authorities at the mirror side also see their pestering means as the appropriate way of exhibiting their supremacy on the wards. The student body, feeling being neglected in the administrative process are also compelled to retaliate strongly with higher levels of impunity to also prove their manpower.

The second sided dimension is the reluctancy on the part of some schools administrators. They do virtually nothing to ensure both the domestic and socioeconomic security of the student body.
This route in the absence of transitional justice where there is no systematic approach to the violation on the students rights and their life conduct as a whole.

Students under the auspices of this two administrative systems acts as masters of their own. As school authorities loose grid of their responsibilities and their cooperative means of ensuring discipline, students presume the existence of these authorities are of no essence since they have no substantial impact on them.

On the premise of this presumption, they do things with high impunity as they deem there is virtually no effective authority to make them face the consequences of their actions.

It’s a flawed philosophy to practice impunity, for it is inappropriate no matter the cause for it. This is because its erroneous effects as it stands the test of time gradually becomes drastic and irreversible.

As this impunity epic exists as a culture, then it also stands greater chances of being transferred. Final students conduct of impunity at higher extremes consciously and unconsciously insinuates their junior fellows to toll the same path. This paves way for moral decadent acts in all ramifications to be portrayed by the masses.

An institution meant for moral and educational transformation ends up being a citadel to for moral bankrupt personalities. These students complete and assume roles of leadership, administering our socioeconomic sector with this high levels of impunity thereby corrupting the system. This is how high this canker worm can eat into the system even at the global level.

People wondering whether the glass is half filled or half empty miss the point. The point is,the glass is refillable. This means proper measures can be adopted to nip the culture of impunity among final year students at the bud. Such measures include; incorporating the student body in the administrative process, making ordinate laws to regulate students mode of conduct and last but not the least, creating a healthy student-authority relationship.

Last but not the least, another cause of this culture of impunity is the notion that, a registered student forever remains a candidate. One might wonder why this becomes predominant at the final years. This is because, as they become candidates, they perceive that as an eternal immunity. That is, they can never be dismissed and for that matter, they are no longer under the shadows of the school. For with this notion in mind, they have no second thought on embarking on any atrocities for after all, the highest level of punishment is debordinisation or suspension and that do not take away the immunity of being a candidate.

In dealing with this, laws should be enacted so as to prone their vulnerability until they complete school. That, a candidate could be dismissed when he/she misconduct. This would determine them from out casing any acts of impunity since their lives are at stake.

The above concept depicts the all in all dimensions of the culture of impunity among final year students. But if these cogent measures are enacted in the various secondary cycles, then this present persistent act can be a defunct entity.

Cudjoe Micah
BX 416
St. Mathew house