Do school rules motivate learners?

Several learners consider schools as prisons where they are confined for a long time with lots of restrictions. I have interacted with several students who have always told me that they do not enjoy being at school and they feel that they stay in school because their parents expect them to be there. Some of them dislike their teachers because they are considered as the rules enforcement officers who are ever on the lookout for the offenders. At the end of it all, many learners leave school when they do not have the right values. This seems to suggest that having rules in place does not guarantee desirable behaviour among learners. I think it is no longer helpful for schools to rely very much on the rules that stipulate the various forms of punishments that offenders are supposed to serve as a result of behaving contrary to the school’s expectations. Much as copies of the rules are issued to the new students upon joining school, I do not think that such documents motivate them to learn with enthusiasm. In the actual sense, some learners lose interest in being at school after perusing through such lengthy documents. My argument is that schools should adopt a system of drafting documents that showcase the values that learners are expected to attain. They should also sensitise them about how the stated values can be acquired. When I was still in secondary school, I dreaded tucking in and during those days we had prefects who had a lot of authority over those of us who were ordinary students. Ironically, they had powers to whip us whenever we broke the school rules. I remember having been whipped several times by the prefects just because my uniform shirt was always hanging. No effort was made by the school administration to make us understand the value of tucking in our shirts. I strongly believe that if much emphasis had been put on sensitising us about the value of dressing formally, we would have been more cooperative than we were at that time. The school authorities used to command us to tuck in during assemblies and we would feel disgusted with such commands. If we are to inculcate the right values among the young people, we have to try as much as possible to make the rules invisible such that learners feel free and enjoy school life. For instance, we can always recognise students who are very good time managers by either announcing their names over school assemblies or giving them some sort of rewards to inspire the others to develop time management skills. This approach is much better than the system of giving punishments to those who are not time conscious. Learners should be helped to realise that we benefit a lot in life as individuals when we manage time appropriately. Otherwise, negative re-enforcement alone has proved to be counter-productive in many situations. One of the major reasons why several schools are still grappling with drug abuse is that more emphasis is put on punishing those found abusing drugs than enabling them to realise the dangers associated with drug abuse. In such cases, heavy punishment is not an effective corrective measure. In any case, some students use drugs because they do not enjoy being at school. We should always have mechanisms in place that inspire young people to love education. It is the passion for education which can effectively bring about acceptable behaviour among the young people. Someone who loves learning has no time for taking drugs. Learners should always be told that the school is a unit of the wider society where certain values are supposed to be upheld by all the members without necessarily warning them about the punishments that they are liable to serve whenever they break school rules. The writer is a teacher