The Ghana Education Service (GES) has called on parents and the wider society to take greater responsibility for growing indiscipline among students, warning that schools cannot tackle the problem alone.

Director-General of the GES, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, said children are increasingly exposed to behaviours outside the classroom that contradict the values schools seek to instil in them.

Speaking at a national conference on stemming the growing indiscipline in schools in Sunyani, he said students were effectively being raised in “two worlds” — one where schools demand discipline and respect, and another where they see adults disregarding those same values.

“The child is being raised in two worlds. In one world, we tell the child to be disciplined, to respect authority and to behave properly, but when they go outside, they see adults doing the opposite.”

He stressed that parents and society must therefore accept responsibility for the behaviour of children instead of leaving the burden entirely on schools.

“If we want to deal with indiscipline in our schools, then we have to look beyond the school. We have to look at the home, the community and society as a whole,” he said.

Prof. Davis also identified social media, unrestricted access to information and changing societal values as factors influencing student behaviour.

He called for stronger collaboration among schools, parents and communities, alongside improved counselling, teacher training and consistent enforcement of school rules.

According to him, the values taught in schools must be reinforced at home and in society if efforts to curb the growing cases of indiscipline, including gang-related violence and attacks on teachers, are to succeed.