School to curb individualism in society

A director at At-Tarbiyyah STEM School, Abuja, Mrs. Amina Abubakar, says there was need for schools to teach students societal values and discipline so that the country would be better for it.

Mrs Abubakar, who spoke during the school’s open day on Saturday, said corruption would be minimal in our society if students grew up having a sense of the community and not individualism. She said such student would want to protect the interest of others and not fight for himself alone.

“We want to bring up children that are disciplined and well cultured. What we have today, everybody is an individual, and we are not a community again. We are trying to bring them together and they can look out for each other, that is what we call a family. With this, the right of others would be respected,” she said.

She said students in the school would set the table for themselves and clean their dishes while parents would be made to ensure they do the same at home. She decrying the practice where parents employed maids to do these chores in some homes.

“Most of what we have today, children don’t have responsibilities in their homes; they eat and leave the plates. They wake up in the morning and leave the bed the way it is because they have house helps. That is why when they grow they only think of themselves,” she said.

She said people carry some practices into adulthood, “that is why when you look at corruption, a person can take billions of naira and he doesn’t need that much. The person next door might not have food on the table.

“It is that individualism that is the problem; everybody is only thinking of himself, wife and family not about the others. So right from the beginning, we have to change our mindset and look at each other as a community. That is what we want to inculcate,” she said.