Poor parenting and policy changes in the education sector are to blame for the widespread unrest in secondary schools around the country.
This ineptitude in the running of public education institutions contributes greatly to violent student protest. Permit my comment on the numerous violent strikes in secondary schools. I have served as a member of the Board of Governors in Public Secondary Schools since I was 27 years old. I was appointed a member of the Board for Giathugu Secondary School, Nyeri in 1999. In 2006 I was also appointed a member of the Board for Mweru Secondary School also in Nyeri. I currently serve as the Chairman of the Board at Mweru.
Both schools have boarding facilities but have so far been spared the agony of violent strikes that are currently facing many schools. My take on this matter is that 70% per cent of indiscipline in schools is a reflection of poor and irresponsible parenting. I have sat in many disciplinary sessions in both schools and amazingly noted that most parents support their teenage children even in clear cases where the children are involved in criminal conduct such as theft, drug trafficking and usage, assault or arson.
It is also very disheartening to note that many intellectuals, business leaders, managers and professionals have ignored, refused and neglected to participate in the management of public education institutions. Service in School Boards is not remunerated and consequently many people choose to stay away from it. I guess it is more pleasurable to spend time in bars and other social places, rather than giving service to the society. The result is that many public schools managed by old and unenergetic retirees, semi-literate businesspeople and other non-professionals. This has created a managerial gap in most schools since many of those old managers cannot cope up with the rapid social, technological, economic and cultural changes in our country.
This is paradoxical since the recent changes in the Education Act and the newly enacted Public Procurement and Disposal Act require schools to be managed by person with a fairly good understanding of Public Finance and Institutional Management. School Boards with members who do not possess managerial skills, expertise and experience are a major source of discontent among students and parents. Parents usually oppose a school administration if they perceive it to be incompetent, opaque or unaccountable. Students on the other hand will engage in insidious conduct to protest against such managers. The protests have become more pronounced and dangerous since the use of corporal punishment in schools was abolished.
Parents are very quick to blame the school administration when things go wrong in a school, yet they shy away from making a conscious effort and practical contribution to the management of the institutions. If anything, boarding schools have become the euphemism for abdication of parental responsibility. They have become the place to abandon teenage children as parents pursue other more important interests such as accumulation of wealth. In my experience in the management of public schools, I have noted that parents regard teenage children as desired and necessary but ephemerally disposable "irritants".
A boarding school is regarded as the best place to send recalcitrant teenage children to give parents space and time to chase other important things. This warped parental attitude is a major cause of indiscipline in schools since many irresponsible parents will do anything including bribing and use of threats to ensure that their children remain in boarding schools and away from home at any cost. Such parents seldom support the school administration in matters of enforcing discipline.
It is important for the government, parents, school managers and educationists to review the current system of managing public institutions to allow all the stakeholders to take up their fair share of responsibility. I also appeal to more professionals, business leaders, intellectuals and managers to be altruistic and agree to assume responsibility and spend their valuable time in running public schools. Let us all participate in building a better future generation.
Capt. Collins Wanderi Munyiri
About the author:
Captain (Rtd) Collins Wanderi is a Nairobi Advocate, Certified Public Secretary, Certified Fraud Examiner, Commissioner for Oaths, & Notary Public. He writes regularly on Kenyan affairs.
I do not agree that poor parenting is the root cause of the strife in our schools. In my Arson article, I give examples of good school management at Starehe as part of the reason they are successful in discipline. Perhaps to counter your suggestion, please note that close to 80% of the students at starehe are either orphans or from dysfunctional families rendering them poor. These kids have no parents to look up to, but stillmanage to behave themselves.
As a school manager, you need to create hope for your students and this keeps them looking at books and petrol cans for bright ideas.
On this matter, I have the advantage of speaking from a point of information and experience rather than emotion. I have already said that good management goes along way to inculcate discpline in public schools. At no time did I mention orphaned children. I talked about those with "busy and mostly, fairly educated parents". I agree with you about orphans. Even the ones in the two schools I manage are very bright and well behaved and my Board and I, personally pay for their upkeep as a way of motivating them. I even go out of my way to help them get places in colleges or employemnt in the police and armed forces. Ironically, it is the children with parents who are badly behaved and irresponsible. I see the same traits in their parents whenever the two Boards are sitting as disciplinary panels. It is costly to serve in those Boards and that is why I am urging more young professional to get involved. I have no child in high school yet I my sacrifice time and resources to offer professional service to the society. This is because I realise that if it were not for the education I have, I would not be where I am today. I urge you to do the same. Together we can change the society we live in!
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... written by Kamale , July 24, 2008
Captain.
Your work with schools is commendable. My own daughter has just completed secondary school and is now in university, and whilst she was in boarding school in primary, she attended a day school in secondary. My reasoning is that the care needed for children in secondary school - key years of their lives - is totally lacking in our secondary schools.
When I was in school at Starehe, I had a leadership position and we had children from the extremely poor to the filthy rich. When it came to wash toilets, everyone of them did so. There are a couple of things that teachers are encouraged to do and that is to spend a lot more friendly time with the students. Every house in the school had a house master - and this was a senior teacher leaving on the compound - who was always available to counsel any of the boys in his house. The house captain and the house master held regular meetings where any boys with challenges was identified and attention paid to them. The director apart from living on the compound was in his office daily upto 8.30 p.m. and apart from disciplinary issues had his door open to any boy with issues at school and even at home. It is no wonder that the boys saw him as their second father! The fact that teachers were ready to volunteer their time on saturdays for morning teaching lessons - not preps! - showed the cooperation between the administration and the academic staff.
I do not think this is a common feature in many of our schools and the striking ones will have this problem. So when you sit on the boards of the schools, it is important that the school is made as much a home as possible for the students. The teachers should move from contractual relationship with their schools and pupils to partners in the entire process. Finally do try and arrange management courses for your headmaster. You will end up with very good schools!
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Crisis In Education written by John Ongeri , July 24, 2008
The papers are also suggesting that post-election violence is another cause of the chaos in schools.....is there any substance in this?
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Membership in school boards written by mkosakabila , July 24, 2008
The housemasters/mistresses in some boarding schools were not teachers--dunno where they dragged them in from. Despite having a monster with an eye on the back of their head re housemaster/mistress, my overall experience in school was ok, sort of. The school was run well, there were alternative ways of resolving problems, discontent was nipped in the bud but not brutally, and there were many ways to keep ourselves amused, that was key. Ha, ha!
My sense is that if anyone wants a home environment at school--that's easy, they should just stay at home and be homeschooled. On the other hand I dont think military-like discipline and spanking are solutions. What we need is some kind of balance. Starehe might not be a good example--sounds like an outlier to me. In very many ways.
As I try to think through what might be happening with our rioting children, who are good children, I hasten to add, I cant help but wonder at why we are so surprised at some of these outcomes. When the world around them is changing so quickly and so radically, including our recent experiences with violent conflict, current inflation, increasing food prices, botched exam results, a government that increasingly appears unsteady, the kids are faced with such severe UNCERTAINTY and it would be unreasonable to expect them all to be singing kumbayah.
They are people too, with hopes, aspirations and dreams, which are increasingly threatened by what they see in the world around them. Expelling/suspending them is downright insensitive, if not stupid, as is re-introducing corporal punishment. I hope parents stand up against these.
Dialogue seems like a reasonable thing to pursue--the kids gievances need to be acknowledged at the very least and some of their demands per feasibility met.There is a strong case for dialogue--just look at what some guy has been doing in Nakuru (link provided below). Talk certainly is not cheap.
ps: because I am so concerned about this, I will take up the Captain's challenge and seek out a school board to work with. Hopefully, I wont be rejected as I hardly fit the standard board member description.
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to Ongeri written by Ngigi wa Kamau , July 24, 2008
I think the proper term would be the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Eventually, the weather, seasonal variations in social behaviour, and mental laxity in Kenyan media houses will all find their roots in post-election violence.
Ngigi
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PEV *is* a cause written by Daniel.Waweru , July 24, 2008
Eventually, the weather, seasonal variations in social behaviour, and mental laxity in Kenyan media houses will all find their roots in post-election violence.
Again, Ory made a very good point the other day: Kenyans have simply lost the knack of non-violent conflict-resolution.
In short, there is no mystery about the mechanism or the causes. No one should be surprised by the effects.
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They need to be heard written by Timothy Okonji , August 12, 2008
I agree with the Captain and also partly with Kamale. The main issue is that the students need to have a way to air their issues. They are at a stage in their lives where they are on their way to adulthood and thus their views and issues should be addressed delicately since they are at a unique stage of development. I was in Strathmore school where we had a very effective Class council run by team captains and their deputies and a class secretary. We had monthly meetings with the Class teacher where student issues were discussed and addressed. All the class teachers subsequently held meetings with the principal and solutions, whenever possible, were arrived at. The system was very effective in the time i was there. Matters as simple as a faulty water tap outside the classroom, that served to quench the thirst of students after a lunch time session of soccer, were resolved as a result of this set up. The idea at Strathmore is that we were a family and not just students there to get education and teachers to get paid. I understand that schools have there own tradition, but the fundamental issue is that schools should adopt a method whereby teachers and students can work together for the betterment of the people who are there; in this case the most important people: The Students. If this is done, i'm sure such incidences that we have been experiencing shall be a thing of the past.
As a sidenote: For those who link the students unrest to what we witnessed in the country after the "disputed presidential election", they have a point and the issue comes down again to what i have mentioned. What the two experiences have in common is that, people were reacting to perceived injustice and lack of faith that their voice can/would be heard. Hence the violence. Let people be heard, let justice be perceived to be achieved as fairly as possible and such scenes shall be a matter of history and not current affairs.
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As a school manager, you need to create hope for your students and this keeps them looking at books and petrol cans for bright ideas.