Due to students’ over-indulgence in social media and bad character, the state of academic performance continues to be the nation’s cry. Sixteen-year-old Maungo Poomore was no exception; he found himself hooked to social media outlets, dating and entertaining vainglorious fame.
He expounded that all hell broke loose when his eyes were opened to dating while at primary school, Standard five. He explained that although he did not engage on the act, he would spend hours day-dreaming about girls. When he progressed to a standard seven, he developed a love for secular dance music which gave birth to a dream of becoming a disc jockey (DJ). With this dream, he adjusted his personality to fit what he believed to be his destiny. He was the go-to-person for anything that had to do with secular dance music. Surrounded by admirers, he entertained his vainglorious fame; became to be known as a ‘cool guy’, he acted rowdy, attentive to his school work and disrespectful towards his teachers. At home, he would talk back to his mother, believing that he was grown up.
During his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), it was by the grace of God that he passed with a first class, grade A. Despite this, things took a turn for the worst when he progressed to Junior school, form one. His obsession to social media matured to the extent that he was unable to control it. According to him, social media was the first thing he attended to when he woke up and the last thing he gave his attention before he went to sleep. Entangled and ensnared by this, he would try to regulate himself but the more he tried to stop, the more he was hooked.
Consequently, from a grade A student, he deteriorated to grade B. During one of his social media sessions, he came across a pornographic page; his obsession pronged off into an incontrollable interest in pornography. As a result, when he was in class, most of his focus would be on his female teachers; lusting over them. Even as he progressed with his studies, his love for secular music blindfolded him into believing that he is destined to be a DJ and this made him to have a nominal focus on his academics. This deemed him a celebrity amongst his peers. His rowdy behaviour continued; he socialised with a crowd of friends who were always disrupting lessons. Subsequently, he dropped to an overall grade C.
Seeing her brother’s state, Maungo’s sister invited him to 3G Ministries in the year 2016. He was on his final year of his Junior school but she had assurance that God is able to salvage his academics. Being in the church gave him the opportunity to enrol into the PPS Programme. His response to hearing the character-building messages delivered by the man of God was detaching himself from all the worldly things he was engaged in. He attested that it was a message titled, “Divert your attention from where it has always been, to your academics”, that propelled him to reform his character. He took a heart’s decision to quit and delete his Facebook account completely. He stopped socialising with bad company and started focusing on his academics. As a result, he started to improve from grade C to B.
Even his teachers recognized his character change and encouraged him to work harder. Indeed, Maungo started to be a hands on student and even participated in a Social Studies Fair were he emerged victorious, scooping a position 2 at the National awards. When the time for Junior certificate examinations came, the fruits of his reformed character paid off. When the results were released, he obtained an overall of Grade A comprising of five A’s, three B’s and a Credit pass. From a school of over two hundred and fifty candidates, Maungo was amongst the four who attained a first class. Moreover, as a former grade C student, he was the second best student in the whole school displaying remarkable improvement. Furthermore, he was the only student to obtain a grade A in Physical Education, a subject in which he used to obtain a grade C.