“DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO”

There is a popular African saying which states that ‘it takes a whole village to raise a single child”. In our case here in Seychelles being a very small country - we will need the whole country to help in raising all our children in being good citizens.

The Ministry of Education has been urging parents to teach their children about living values in an effort to address the social ills facing the country.  In years gone by, there has been much talk from parents and teachers alike on the lack of values displayed by students in schools and in public places.  It is indeed true that what parents teach their kids at home have a major impact on how they eventually behave in public and at school. The Seychellois people are known for their friendliness and politeness throughout the world - this is thanks to our parents previously, who had the freedom on how to groom and bring up their children. Since there is an outcry from all sectors of our society about the issue,’ living values’, in our youth of today - My friends and I have tried to analyze this situation.

Some years back NCC, through the voice of their Chairperson, used the media to the maximum to educate the country, particularly the very young of their rights.  Since then, our society has witnessed a major change in the attitudes of the younger generation.  From very good to good, from good to satisfactory and from satisfactory to poor.  This declined in attitude has been apparent on the streets, at schools, in churches, in public, on SPTC buses ….etc. It is clear that Our Beloved Seychelles is suffering from the children’s rights as formerly advocated by the NCC.

When will NCC ever realize the negative impact caused by their ill directed campaign?  How is the organization going to repair the damages caused just by giving too much importance to children’s rights and forgetting all about children’s responsibilities and parents’ role in the upbringing of their children.  Will the parents alone be able sort out this mess? This is a very good example of a situation where the blunder of one person and her associate has affected a whole generation of people.  Are the people responsible for this mess capable of restoring what they triggered?

 Even though some parents will try to equip their kids with good values, will our education system be able to maintain and improve on what the parents of today will achieve with their kids.  We don’t believe that this is achievable within the current system unless Mr. Shamlaye & co are willing to move away from Danny Faure’s system and adopt a more conducive approach that will ease off the pressure on our teachers, giving them more time to enrich the moral values and to discipline children.

 The SPPF government and its leaders have a duty towards society to be role models, above all for the younger generation.  They need to demonstrate a very high level of living values. Stop lying to the people of this country and to behave properly in public. Children are good copy-cats they will always try to emulate what they see from bigger people. If the President says for an example that he will do something and then without explanation does the complete opposite – it does not bode well with the upbringing of the younger generation. We cannot afford to promote the “do as I say not as I do” mentality, especially with children - Seychelles is far too small for this kind of approach!

(Contributed)

February 1, 2008
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles