I can’t withstand bed-wetting anymore: come to my rescue

The fight to retain the Ghanaian child in school in the pre-tertiary sector has brought dozens of education intervention policies into fruition. These encapsulate free compulsory universal basic education, free school feeding programme, free uniform policy to mention but a few.

However, the historical malice – enuresis (bed-wetting) continues to eat deeper into the core of our country’s pre-tertiary education system, resulting in parlous learner academic performance. It is explicitly clear that no iota of attention is given to it over decades.

The abhorrence had toppled a multitudinous number of heroes and heroines at their tender ages without a rescuer.  There is no space for debate on how emotionally and psychologically traumatising bed-wetting could be in the advancement of learner achievement. Apart from how timid learners become in class, the scourge drowns them in a pool of shame.

May I hasten to indicate that; parents who should be providing the tincture to the remonstrance through counselling, medical supports among others rather turn to encourage their ward’s being suffocated in wet mats and tossed on the streets of our villages. Is this not pathetic?

During teaching and learning, the bed-wetter finds it awfully disgraceful to contribute towards lessons. They are engrossed in the fear that, classmates would tease them by using nicknames relating to the involuntary incident. Fellow educationists, is this involuntary action, not more than a pandemic to merit the needed attention? Why wait for long to address it?  One could best comprehend the anxiety if and only if they had gone through the horrible experience of wetting the bed.

Permit me to ask, could you imagine what a girl who bed wets go through as she menstruates? Just guess it! Irrefutably, it is not solely about providing requisite teaching-learning materials and the best learning environment. Also, building the strongest self-esteem in the learner for a miraculous positive academic performance is important. Yes! let us solve the problem of bed-wetting among learners. The time is now!

Inarguably, bed-wetting weakens learner self-esteem, makes them feel timid, and less courageous to responding to learning situations in and outside the classroom.

• Social Impacts on Learners

The issue of societal humiliation is what surrounds the bed-wetter. They may have restrictions to partake in social academic activities that involve spending the night outside the home. Learners who bed wet find it extremely awkward to associate with peers during playtime.  What is the value of schooling in the life of such a learner?

• Economic Impacts on Parents

There is no denying the fact that, bedwetting burdens the purse of parents. It is associated with huge cost in washing the bed linen and dresses of the bed-wetter. This implies that, parents could resort to using the little money they have to support their ward’s education on buying soap, detols and other detergents for the purpose of putting the home in order.

• Psychological Impacts on Learners

Indisputably, bed-wetting promotes lateness to school. A student who could be carried in wet mat and hooted at would be embarrassed and could not report to school on time due to fear of being stigmatized.  A bed-wetting student could not have the courage to answer questions in class as he or she may fear being teased. They remain with low self-esteem. This could be exacerbated when learners are punished for the act. In some communities frogs are tied around the testicles of these children. In others, children are carried and thrown into nearby streams and rivers early in the morning   in order to put fear in them to stop wetting their beds. Very horrifying right?

The Way forward

In addressing this critical subject, it is worth recommending that:

• The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service should accord the issue with adequate priority.
• The Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service should collaborate with the Ministry of Health, so they could research the occurrence and find lasting treatment for it.
• School Health Education Programme coordinators (SHEP) should identify, counsel and provide hope to students who are part of this challenge.
• School Health Education Programme (SHEP) coordinators should provide parents with the needed education so, they would desist from punishing and humiliating their children who find themselves in this situation.

 

Conclusion

A humble appeal goes to non-governmental organisations in education, more especially, UNESCO, UNICEF and others to take keen interest in this matter in order to assist in securing the future of these innocent children.

# Help Stop Bedwetting Now..!!

 

Writer: WISDOM KOUDJO KLU, EDUCATIONIST/ COLUMNIST, KPONE KATAMANSO MUNICIPALITY, GREATER ACCRA REGION. [email protected]