🧩 ***When accountability breaks down, society fractures, and education is often the first to feel the pressure.***
🚦 The Slippery Slope
Over the last few weeks, I have been observing something quietly disturbing unfold in our society, and it all comes down to one thing: a blatant lack of accountability.
I have seen drivers blatantly break road rules, taking left turns where they should not, driving on the wrong side of the road to cut corners, making U-turns on the highway, and parking in spaces reserved for the disabled. I have watched individuals toss garbage out of vehicle windows, drive with mobile phones pressed to their ears, and cross the street mere steps away from a zebra crossing, ignoring safety, common sense, and decency.
These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a broader issue: people no longer feel the need to follow rules, and more dangerously, they do not believe they will be held accountable if they do not.
🚫 Rules Are Not Optional
Even with traffic cameras installed and law enforcement officers patrolling the streets, many remain undeterred. It is as if laws are mere suggestions, easily ignored in favor of convenience or selfishness.
However, laws in a developing society are not just bureaucratic red tape. They are intended to protect citizens and preserve national resources. Even the smallest infractions can have catastrophic consequences. That casual U-turn could cause a five-car collision. That phone call behind the wheel could cost someone their life. That litter tossed out the window might block a drain, flooding entire communities during the next heavy rainfall.
Individually, these actions might seem minor. But when the damage is done and people wind up injured or dead, “sorry” does not suffice.
💰 The Cost of Inaction
If we wish to halt this steady decline, our government must stop treating these infractions as harmless. People must feel the consequences, especially where it hurts most: in their pockets. Fines, enforcement, and education must align to build a society where accountability is not optional.
Because developing countries do not become developed by tolerating deviance. They rise by setting high standards, enforcing them consistently, and reminding citizens that we all have a role to play in protecting our shared space.
🎓 What Does This Have to Do With Education?
Everything.
When students observe their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and older siblings breaking rules without consequence, the message is loud and clear: this is how the world works. That pattern repeats. That mindset spreads. The result is more lawbreakers in the making.
Children learn from what surrounds them. When the wider society is built on shortcuts, recklessness, and disrespect for rules, the education system becomes a weak front-line defense, attempting to instill values that are constantly being contradicted at home and in the streets.
This is not merely a personal reflection. It is food for thought, a plea for those in charge to recognize that if we do not step up now to protect the standards that generations before us carefully built, we risk watching society spiral into a state that cannot be repaired.
🔚 Final Thought
If accountability is seen as optional, then so is justice, order, and community trust. Society does not collapse overnight. It erodes little by little when small infractions are overlooked. And when the streets become lawless, so too do the classrooms. If we are serious about educating the next generation, we must start by modelling the discipline and structure we expect them to adopt.