But a school should do its best to keep foreign influence at bay. For instance, visitors should be subjected to thorough security checks. A security conscious school should, without ceasing, desire to scrutinise all visitors and those seeking to do business with the school. school premises. What value are they adding to the school and how the visitors are helping the school to realise its goals? Here is a word of caution. Not all visitors mean well. Some come with bad intentions.
It should be the duty of a school to learn to separate wheat from chaff. Some of the visitors may not be what they claim or pretend to be. This could be the reason why schools are confronted with a spike in cases of indiscipline and substance abuse. Bad external influences must curtailed and frustrated while good external influences should be nurtured and encouraged. Schools should cultivate rapport and friendship with celebrities. Platforms should be created enabling students to interact with eminent persons who have distinguished themselves in their professional trades. It is disheartening to find some school gates are left wide open and unmanned for the better of the school business. A school is not a shopping mall where anybody can walk in and out without scrutiny. Security at the gates should be tightened to secure the integrity of schools and to guarantee the safety and protection of the country’s most valuable assets - students. There is also an urgent need to reset the mindsets of students from negativity to positivity. Students should relish the vibe of a school. They must have a sense of belonging and ownership. A school should not feel like an imposition from parents or teachers. Left to their own devices, students can become their own worst enemies. Students discipline is no mana from heaven. It is earned through hard work, persuasion and a deliberate creation of an enabling environment. Schools cannot hope to accomplish much if students, for whose benefit schools are created, participate reluctantly. Schools should excite students and make them keen to learn. Schools must endeavour as a matter urgency to win back the hearts of students who seem to have little faith in the game changing power of a school. Students should know that there is no hope without schools.
