Kenya National Parents Association has urged the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to employ more qualified guiding and counseling teachers and deploy them to schools in a move to strengthen the department.
The Association’s National Chairman Silas David Obuhatsa told Education News that the teachers will help in guiding and counsel their fellow teachers who might be going through stress and depression in a move to curb severe corporal punishment upon students in schools.
“The parents’ association is urgently calling on the Teachers Service Commission to recruit and post qualified guidance and counseling teachers to all schools in the country to support the systems already put in place to guide teachers going through stress,” said Obuhatsa.
“As parents we want the Ministry of Health to come up with a programme where all teachers have to undergo mental examination frequently to rescue learners from the actions of such teachers,” he added.
Obuhatsa noted that the association is fully supporting the Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu’s position to prohibit corporal punishment in schools.
Obuhatsa noted that teachers are professionals who fully understand the TSC code of ethics adding that corporal punishment goes against the Children’s Act of 2001 that abolished the punishment.
“We appreciate that a big percentage of teachers are doing a good job as far as teaching is concerned however just a few are tarnishing the profession through crude ways,” he said.
He also observed that some parents have abdicated their parenting roles to teachers whom students don’t want to listen to, noting that this has caused an increase in negative discipline issues in schools.
“Parents must come back to their senses and work with teachers closely to improve school discipline,” said Obuhatsa.
By Roy Hezron
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
