Education is considered
to be the bed-rock of growth of any nation that is why every single government
in our contemporary world makes it a fundamental obligation to provide
education for its citizens; hence the call by governments for “education for
all”. However, certain advances (so-called fashion) over the past years seem to
be militating against this dream. Notable among them is the craze for which has
resulted in nudity among the teaming youth.
Not a day passes
without some complaint or the other by colleagues, students, visitors,
lecturers, non-teaching staff or some other persons about the provocative
dressing among high school students, which is known to be indecent dressing.
INDECENT DRESSING' is wearing
of clothing that is out of shape with what the society expects. It is the dressing
that is likely to shock or offend people. It is also the deliberate exposure of
a person, of a part or parts of his or her own body under circumstances likely
to be seen as contrary to the locally accepted standards of decency.
Although, there are no
universally acceptable way or ways of dressing, dresses are fragments of a
peoples’ culture and they define their tribal or ethnic identity. On the other
hand, they serve as a defense for the body against severe weather conditions as
well as for covering the intimate parts of the body. These purposes are important,
especially as they form major facets of a person’s personality. But as vital as
these purposes are, they have been crushed down by the generation of Ghanaian
youths. Indecent appearance has come to characterize the dress pattern of many
students on the campuses of higher learning. It is increasingly becoming
obvious that indecent dressing has gradually taken over the dress pattern of
students in higher institutions of learning in Ghana.
The African culture and
particularly that of Ghana encourages modesty in appearance as do the Christian
and Islamic religions.
What the girls call
skirts that they wear is just “one inch” longer than their pants. When they put
on such dresses, they struggle to sit down, find difficulty to climb, cross
gutters as well as pick anything from the ground. Apart from the skimpy and
tight fitting nature of these dresses, they are again transparent; revealing
all their ‘assets’ and certain portions of the bodies that under normal
dressing patterns ought to be hidden away from the glare of people. As if this
is not enough, these same girls wear very tight trousers called ‘skinnies’,
thereby showing the contours of their body ostensibly to entice the opposite
sex and attract ‘customers’. They also wear very short and transparent tops
called ‘show your stomach’ (which exposes their abdomen and breasts), ‘bare
back’, ‘I’m aware’, ‘matriki Jesus’ (which means I have tricked Jesus), it just
goes on and on.
In the case of boys,
you tend to wonder whether they are human beings or are a part of God’s
creation. Students
dress haphazardly, not tucking in their shirts. The waist of their trousers is
lowered at the middle of their two bottom lobes, revealing their pant which is
called “Otto Fistta” (named after Otto Fistta, an expatriate coach of the Ghana
Black Stars who was who was quite plump except for his buttocks which appeared
relatively thin and flat, making it necessary for him to wear his trousers on
the hip rather than the waist Soon the boys began to copy Otto). Everybody has
become bow- legged; even the knock-kneed walk in a haughty manner, swaying and
staggering like drunken men. This type of dressing makes them walk by
dragging their feet on the ground which is very embarrassing for any gentleman
who is going through education. Their dressing makes them look dirty and very
unattractive with unkempt hairs and dirty jeans having pockets of holes
deliberately created around the knees and lower parts of the trousers.
One is not however
surprised because it is not just a behavior
that developed overnight, but an accumulated behavioral pattern that could be
attributed to improper home upbringing
or poor parenting.
The implication of this
is that parents must be seen to be morally exemplary. They are the most
important people in their children’s lives. But how many parents model good
moral character? How many of them give good attention to their children?
Children are kept incommunicado as a result of the perpetual and prolonged absence
of either or both parents from home for business and other engagements, social
and or spiritual. As a result, the children are left to themselves, become
rudderless or at best under the tutelage of nannies. Most parents have no time
to check their children’s wardrobes and the implication of this is that they
can wear anything in the form of dress.
Apart from this issue
of neglect, many parents especially others buy anything in the form of dresses
for their children. A little female child of less than three years is adorned
with hair attachments, rosy chicks, and eye shadows so lavishly that she
becomes an embarrassment to onlookers. This little girl is made to grow with
this form of dress pattern and when she becomes of age, she finds it difficult
to depart from this way of behavior or life.
Peer
Pressure is also a fundamental cause of indecent dressing.
The desire to belong and the fear of rejection have led many youths into evil
or immoral acts sometimes against their will. Some of them lack the strong will
to say no to evil for fear of being isolated. And apart from isolationism, peer
conformity could be the result of faulty foundational home training. A child
with healthy home training should be able to so quickly resolve identity
crises, filter between rights and wrongs no matter how the wrongs are decorated
and then maintaining his/her integrity and the good name of the family. It is
obvious that a mango tree will not bear orange fruits. The pressure of peers
will be inconsequential when there is healthy parental upbringing and the fear
of God in their life.
Technology
(ICT) has helped to revolutionise the community
tremendously. In as much as ICT is
helpful, consequential to human, and societal developments, the rate of abuse
and the un- regulatory ways they are used call for great concern. Most of the
youths and children that are exposed to some of their contents that most times
are negative so quickly fall vulnerable. The parents of these children and
their senior siblings in Diasporas are the ones promoting indecent and immoral
practices and they are relayed through videos, pornography, and music as well
as advertisement and fashion parades.
Broken
Marriages is also one of the factors that results to student’s
indecent dressing. When there is early separation between husband and wife,
most of the children produced tend to act and behave the way they like. This is
because there is nobody to check their ins and outs. As a result of that, they
copy and emulate any form of glaring behavior they see on the streets.
The media cannot be
excluded when it comes to influences on the youth. Nowadays, radio, televisions
and Internet providers do not differ either in the contents of what they relay
as programs. Children in school are always advised to watch and learn from
radio and television programs and also read magazines and graphics, and it is in
this case where you see top these media houses displaying disseminating
nudities all over in their broadcasting and publications. They will then learn
and put into practice what they see and hear. In this day and age we see and
hear T.V. and radio stations organizing programs on it, you analyse these
programs and see they are really doing a great harm to the youth. They are far and wide in the magazines and
movies and if there
is one area of life where it feels like Satan is winning the battle, it’s in
the region of fashion. And if there is one area where our bodies are screaming
out to us to disobey God, it’s in the area of bodily appearances.
Indecent dressing is caused
by foreign influence and fading value.
Most cherished African values are fast fading due to non-patronage and
modernization or acculturation. There is no respect
for our culture any longer; most people are now blind to the fashion in vogue,
such that they have become slaves to the fashion world. Whatever students
decide to wear on campuses is greatly shaped by fashion. With the inception of
western civilisation, which brought in beauty pageants, promo and
advertisements of all sorts, fashion and modeling, foreign, musical and
pornographic films et cetera, indecent dressing has become fashionable. For
instance, the beautiful hair braiding typical of African ladies are being
traded for hair “roasting” in saloons, modern and dignifying dress patterns are
giving ways to the skimpy, transparent and provocative dresses found all around
today. Many of these youths that dress immodestly may not even know what is
wrong with the way they dress because nothing suggests to them that is wrong.
Their parents applaud them in those dresses, do not even ask how they came
about those dresses and when they appear in public, they are cheered by their
mates and friends and to make the matter worse, all around them, what they see
on people is not reasonably different from what they wear.
Spiritual
influence is another cause of indecent dressing; this is a
strong factor that accounts for the stimulating and provocative ways that some
youths dress on campuses today. Some of these youths particularly, the female
ones, are agents of the devil on a mission to lure many men into immorality and
away from God. This matter is spiritual and we may tend to oppose it as
academics. But if we must be sincere, we should know that many of these youths
are in cults and occults and their operations are.
It is shocking to note
that these wrongful and improper dressings of High school students has a high
tendency of Impacting negatively on their academic performance yet they enjoy
being in that state. The effects are on individuals, the country, and the
educational process. This strange way of dressing can result in sexual
harassment of the wearer, abortion, and contraction of sexually transmitted diseases,
poor academic performance and even the desire to steal.
There is a great possibility
of indecently- dressed students becoming agents of the devil luring unsuspecting
colleagues into all sort of vices including prostitution, homo sexuality and
lesbianism.
Indecently-dressed
students are victims of academic failure because they have little or no time
for their studies. Most of such students are concerned with how to look good
and appear in the latest provocative dress. Several of them battle with carry
over courses with the consequences of staying longer in the school than is
normal to graduate. Some of them even graduate with weak grades and some may
not graduate at all. Some of them become confrontational and frustrated. If they
are not hooligans, they are armed robbers, prostitutes, home or marriage breakers,
drug traffickers or addicts.
Female students on devote
so much money in purchasing such useless dresses instead of spending them on
their academic work.
Their indecent and
licentious dressing also makes them patronize discotheques, night clubs, brothels
and hotels where they can have fun at the expense of their studies. There is
also the possibility of some male lecturers or even female lecturers falling
prey to such seductive dressings which may result in sexual favours between the
lecturers on one hand and students on the other hand. This clearly will be a
hindrance to quality education; as such students will not be able to perform up
to the expectation of their prospective employers and consequently lead to loss
of revenue to the state.
Poor performance of
students as a result of indecent dressing can be linked to unemployment. This
is so because students who dress indecently have divided attention for their studies
and are therefore unable to receive adequate practical training which is a
prerequisite for employment by most companies. And because such companies are
not ready to spend extra money training such partially- groomed graduates, the
latter find themselves joining the Unemployed Graduate Association of Ghana. The
output of male lecturers most especially can reduce when they concentrate on
watching such provocative dressings during lectures.
In order to curb
indecent dressing in Senior high Schools, very practical initiatives must be
embarked upon to educate the student populace about the potential dangers
associated with it. This is necessary to prevent further decline in the
academic performance of students. In doing that, Lessons on morality should be taught.
Students who dress indecently to lectures should be sacked from the lecture
halls. A dress code or a uniform in consultation with the fashion department
should be introduced. There should be an award for decently dressed students at
the end of every academic year. There should be guidance and Counseling unit for
every school that would organize programs to educate students about indecent
dressing. Rules and regulations concerning dressing should be formulated and
included in the students’ prospectus. The stakeholders of tertiary institutions
should be involved in instituting measures to harmonize dressing in all
tertiary institutions. Parent must also try their very best in inculcating the
right attitude to their kids. The student themselves must also be ready to
appreciate their local culture and screen the emulation of everything they see
on TV.