By Enock Okong’o
The Kisii County Education Board chairman chairman Prof Henry Onderi has asked parents to bond with their children when they are at home.
He asked them to be near their children at all times to guide and direct them when so that they can become responsible citizens.
Speaking to Education news at his office in Kisii town, Onderi said the teenagers are likely to indulge in bad activities unless they are properly guided and guarded.
“They need to take charge during this long holiday for those who did their KCSE and the grade four learners,” said Onderi.
He said social media has greatly contributed to the involvement of youth in devious behavior that lures them into social vices.
He asked parents to design programmes suitable to the ages of their children to guide their physical and mental development.
“Form four school leavers should to join short courses like computer training as they wait to join various universities and colleges instead of involving themselves in drug and substance abuse,” he said.
Other challenges facing the teens include early marriage and pregnancies that ruin their ambitions and aspirations.
’Some parents have taken the advantage of closure of schools for grade four pupils to force them into Female Genital Mutilation (FGM),” he said.
He said FGM is detrimental to the learners because it not only instills physical and psychological pain to those initiated in the rite of passage but also thwarts their education development.
Onderi said those practicing FGM should be arrested and arraigned in court and asked churches and the public to be alert and protect the rights of children.
Onderi, a former high school Principal, is now a Director at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University Of Science and Technology Kisii Campus.
