The Role Of Primary Schools In Preventing Bad Habits In Pupils

 The importance of primary school education cannot be gainsaid either on the score of moral or design. Primary schools play a pivotal role in child's development, helping the pupils develop healthy habits. Below are the ways primary schools can contribute to the prevention of bad habits in pupils:

a. According to psychologists Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory and Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, children learn by observing and imitating others in their environments. Therefore, primary school teachers and staff should model behaviours such as respect, empathy, kindness, and responsibility for the pupils to emulate. 

b. Teachers should encourage the pupils to see challenges as nothing but opportunities for growth and learning.

c. Primary schools should incorporate self-regulation, emotional regulation, time management, problem-solving, and the ability to finish given tasks under specific time frames into schools' curriculum.

d. Primary schools should embark on regular physical activities for the development of self-discipline, teamwork, doing things turn-by-turn, sharing and healthy habits. 

e. Primary schools should encourage empathy, kindness, and mutual understanding to the enrichment of all pupils.

f. Teachers and staff should model sharing attitudes, demonstrating its value and indispensable importance in human social interactions.

g. Teachers should assign classroom works to the pupils with specific time to submit the assignments. This way, they shall learn responsibility and strict adherence to instructions.

h. Teach the pupils how to promote a sense of responsibility, accountability, and ownership. They should be responsible for their decisions, actions, undertakings, and mistakes.

i. Help the pupils to reflect on their actions, thinking about how they can improve and take responsibility for their wrong doings.

j. Teachers should model positive communications by demonstrating positive communication skills such as active listening and expression of gratitude, to promote positive classroom environment.

k. Teach the pupils critical thinking and reasoning skills so as to develop problem-solving abilities and reduce excessive complaining.

l. Collaboration strategies between parents and teachers (Parents Teachers Association) should be encouraged. This platform will enhance open communications between parents and teachers to ensure consistency in promoting positive habits and preventing bad ones among the children. 

m. Positive reinforcement strategies should be integrated. Physical rewards and accolades should be given to those pupils who do well both in academic works and in mannerisms, while punitive measures should be meted out to the pupils with bad habits to serve as deterence to others.

n. Teachers and staff are required to create positive and supportive learning environment which promotes social, emotional, and academic growth.

However, it is pertinent to state that while primary school teachers play key role in developing and shaping the young minds of the pupils, there are several other faceless teachers inadvertently fail in their responsibilities to eradicate bad habits in primary school pupils. In fact, many teachers have been found to be responsible for the proliferation of bad habits in the schools. Find below the bad behaviours of teachers which have contributed to the poor development of children in the primary schools:

a. Irregular discipline approach adopted by teachers has increased the embers of bad habits among the pupils. Teachers are supposed to make clear rules against bad habits in their schools and the consequences awaiting all defaulters. Without that, the pupils will be confused, and such inconsistency against bad habits may undermine efforts to do away with the habit.

b. The failure of teachers to reward good or obedient pupils with physical prizes and accolades may hinder others from adopting healthy conducts.

c. Every primary school authority should have a well-structured and organized classrooms that is serene for learning. If not, bad habits will grow because of poor classrooms management.

d. Many teachers did not undergo adequate teachers' training courses where they are trained to train others. Hence, they are unable to address specific bad habits or behavioral issues in the primary schools. Therefore, there should be professional development programmes to prepare teachers for training the children.

e. Many teachers do not set goals which they want the pupils to meet since they are destitute of professional teaching skills. 

f. Many teachers do not have time enough time to teach the children in the primary schools because they have other business engagements to attend to. Many of them have supermarkets, hairdressing saloons, poultry and piggery farms, and others. There are reports by pupils that teachers flagrantly refuse to answer their questions after a lesson in the class. They usually tell the children to postpone their questions till the next lesson period. By so doing, the child may forget to ask that question. And because that question was not asked and answered, the child will remain in ignorance of that topic. When that question comes in the examination, the child will fail it because he/ she was not given opportunity to understand it. This is a common occurrence everywhere in our own part of the world. The teachers are amphibious! They have one leg in the teaching profession, and the other leg in the business sector. They can't be master of any of them! Most times, when teachers finish examinations, they end up giving the answer manuscripts to others to mark for them. In many cases, these answer manuscripts are not given to professional teachers or learned people to mark. You can find different levels of examination answer sheets in the hands of their sons and daughters, maids, servants, and others. This is what happens in Africa. I have seen it in different places for many years. This includes secondary or college certificate examinations which students need to secure admissions into the universities. All examinations in Africa: First School Leaving Certificate, Common Entrance Examination for securing admission into the college, West African School Certificate (final examination before leaving college) etc, are mostly not marked by teachers but by their friends and family relations, while the teachers are busy transacting their own businesses elsewhere. By so doing, pupils and students who should have passed will fail, and those who should have failed will pass. 

g. Without any equivocation, many teachers glaringly aid and abate bad habit of immorality in the schools (whether primary, secondary or tertiary institutions). The teachers have over the years led many girls into the family ways. Some of these impregnated girls dropped out of schools, thereby becoming liabilities to the parents and society. Others died in the course of abortions because they did them in the traditional way by drinking liquids from herbs. The foetus began to decay in the womb instead of coming down. So, they died prematurely. This list is endless. There were many cases like this in the primary school that I attended. Four girls died and two lost their wonbs permanently! 

Some international agencies have contributed to the prevention of bad habits in the primary schools. They are: European Commission (EU), UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, World Bank, Save the Children, OECD, and Plan International (for girls development only), and and and ChildFund International have all developed guidelines and programmes promoting positive behaviours ,life skills, and healthy habits for the primary school pupils. For example, the EU has taken steps to prevent bad habits in European primary schools. One of the most popular among them is the EU Primary School Schemes, which seeks to enhance eating habits among children. The scheme provides funds to distribute fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk to children to children schools in Europe. For this 2024 academic year, approximately 221 million euros was allocated to support this initiative. It has also emphasized the importance of creating a safe and supportive learning environment. This includes promoting positive relationships between pupils, teachers, and peers, as well as addressing issues such as bullying and social exclusion.

In summary, the Governments of the countries and regions of the world should collaborate with international agencies and national Ministries of Education to prevent bad habits in the primary schools, as well as ensuring that teachers adopt disciplined and moral behaviours to train