Causes of Indiscipline and Measures of Improving Discipline in Senior Secondary Schools in Ghana: Case Study of a Senior Secondary School in Sunyani

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the main causes of students’ misbehaviour and measures teachers and students consider to be most appropriate for controlling the unruly behaviour of the students. Purposive, sample, of 50 teachers who held the various positions in the school, and 150 students comprising the Students Representative Council, the class prefects and the class secretaries, was used for the study. Descriptive sample survey was considered to be most appropriate method for the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. Majority of the respondents shared the opinion that it is the students themselves who cause such acts of indiscipline. It is only with students late to school and demonstrations that the majority of the respondents attributed the causes to parents and school respectively. A careful look at the statistics of causes of acts of indiscipline on Table 1 shows that apart from the individuals themselves, the school is the next cause of most of the acts of indiscipline. The community closely follows with parents and the media being almost at par. With regard to the measures of ensuring discipline in the School, all the ten measures that were listed were considered by at least 90% of the respondents to be very important.

Keywords: students’ misbehaviour, Students Representative Council, and descriptive survey.