Has anyone noticed the rise of deaths in the adventures of being a school child and being a teenager?
Suicide has taken a major turn as a result of bullying, peer pressure, unwanted teenage pregnancies, drug abuse, poverty and prostitution. Illiteracy has led to many peers dropping out of school and engaging in various activities such as theft in which they end up getting arrested and sent to prison, after being released from prison they steal again and are sent back to prison such that it has become normal to most youngsters who call themselves ‘’GANGSTERS’’
Some girls are not getting enough pocket money from their parents due to poverty so they end up indulging in prostitution or start dating older men known as ‘’ blessers ‘’who shower them with presents and money in exchange of sexual activities these are the results of peer pressure. The after effects of prostitution or escort services are a pandemic of unwanted pregnancies, fatherless children, a whole bag of STI’s and this results to suicide and dropping out of school.
Many pupils submit to peer pressure because they want to be accepted by the ‘’cool kids ‘’. This has regrettably led to false accusations, bullying and theft. In the case of false accusations, one is forced to be a scapegoat of something they did not do. Bullying is a major school issue because you can either be bullied verbally, emotionally, physically or cyber bullied.
Due to online learning most learners are now using the internet and other social networks which makes them a target to cyber bullying. Others who are computer genius end up hacking or scamming those with little knowledge of computers
Some students are adrenaline junkies which means they are involved in heavy sports and this might lead to internal or external injuries which may cause sudden death. Others claim to be swimmers but they end up drowning and dying in swimming pools. This has risen the death rate due to sporting activities
School relationships have a new term called ‘dating’, students engage in relationships which may cause them to perform poorly in schools or getting pregnant which leads to an early marriage at a tender age. This early marriage might lead to abuse or poverty. This poverty issue leads to one being involved in prostitution in order to take care of the family
Favoritism is another factor, we have cases of teachers favoring rich pupils or teachers not liking average pupils and this creates a boundary between the two. Knowing this, other students leave school because of not being given good grades. Some pupils cheat in exams because of favoritism and this increases the rate of passing but is a disadvantage to those pursuing further studies, on the other hand learning should be fun not favored.
Each and every day a new drug is invented by our ‘unknown drug lords ‘and we have those who are adventurous in trying new things. The exploring of new drugs like ‘mutoriro ‘, ‘ngoma’ and ‘mbanje’ leads to learners hallucinating in classes, engaging in violence as this puts other learners at risk of getting hurt or may lead to abuse as well. This has led to a saddening conclusion on drug deaths due to overdoses.
Failing in final exams may cause others to commit suicide. This is caused by parents who are very strict. Many students are afraid of disappointing their parents so they commit suicide. Some boys do not want to accept their pregnancies so they see suicide as the ultimate solution. Illegal abortion is another issue, girls are given money to have abortions in which the results are not always positive because either the mother or the unborn child die or they both die. According to researches this process involves losing a lot of blood which may have after effects of being barren or anemic.
Children who come from abusive homes will end up abusing others at schools because they are used to it. Those who are physically abused end up being afraid to face people or to get help so they will end up committing suicide. Girls who are abused sexually end up getting pregnant or with diseases and with no one to help them so some run away from homes or engage into escort services just to make a living. The girl child should be protected
‘Education is the key to success ‘I quote the late Nelson Mandela, in order for us to move forward we need to break all these barriers with the power of education.
As a proud and educated nation that we are, we need to ask ourselves; what happened to our leaders of tomorrow, what happened to our twenty first century teenagers?
