By Kage Njoroge
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Muranga South executive secretary John Njata has blamed the current mass indiscipline in secondary schools on poor parenting.
Njata argued that many contemporary young parents have failed in their parental obligations of inculcating values, culture, positive conduct, moral teaching and punitive enforcement of rules to their children.
‘Failure by parents to instill discipline in their children has resulted in the upbringing of indiscipline youth. Teachers and house helps cannot train children to behave well,’ he said.
Responding to the ongoing wave of burning schools by students, the union leader stressed that some parents are “soft” in punishing their children at home and allow them to behave carelessly.
‘Teachers have limited powers to correct misconduct among students because corporal enforcement of discipline in schools was outlawed,’ he said.
Njata added that the current wave of fires in schools is an expression of the societal failure to nurture well cultured and disciplined children under a positive value system.
He argued that what further complicates the matter is the emergence of digital platforms which supply uncensored information to children who have no intellectual capacity to process and use some of the information.
‘The Covid-19 restrictions have also brought new challenges in learning institutions. Entertainment and sports in schools have been negatively affected hence leading to the accumulation of stress and anxiety among students,’ he explained.
He added that the tightening of the term dates to recover time lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered the mass chaos in the schools.
To address the emerging challenges, Njata called on parents to be strict in teaching their children on real life values and positive behaviour.
He also urged parents to avoid enrolling toddlers in boarding primary schools and to instead nurture and train them at home.
He further pointed out that the government should invest in equipping day schools as a strategy to solve the challenges in boarding schools.
He concluded that CBC provides a good opportunity to facilitate day mixed schools and gradually sort out the boarding schools issues.
