By Justine Nafula
Secondary school students are becoming negligent by involving themselves in school unrest forgetting that the cost of damage caused will have to be on their parents.They will also be the victims of their actions as they will be affected due to failure to complete in the syllabus.
Recently incidents of arson have been reported in several schools including Chewoyet boys high schoolin West Pokot, where students burnt their dormitory on Monday July 10th 2018; same happened to Usenge high school inSiayaCounty on Saturday 14 July 2018 while Barding secondary school inSiaya was closed after an attempt by the students to set the school on fire.
The unrest has led to closure of several schools which include: Kisumu girls, Ambira boys, Maranda boys, Maliera boys and Ngiya girls in Siaya County for the fear of influence from other schools to burn theirs.
Causes of unrest in schools have been blamed on the upbringing of children; students are raised differently under different environments, how a child will be raised, it will built his mental picture and behavior.
Melisa Anyango, a parent said that most students are exposed to harsh environment and are under drug influence, hence fear nothing and can cause extensive damagein schools without caring of the outcome.
She said the proposal for common uniform for schools is another cause. The proposal to have all students wear same uniform, proposed by the Kenya Parent Association (KPA) in order to enhancestudent’s safety and cushion parents from exploitation may not have gone down well among students. The association suggested a grey uniform for primary and blue one for secondary schools. The idea seemed brilliant but students had negative attitude on it.
Dandora secondary schoolstudent Henry Omondi said that the idea could bring confusion.“Hence difficult to differentiate the schools and most students are used to their own lifestyle with the different school uniform hence it will difficult for them to cope up,” he noted.
“Most of us studentswere against the uniformity, even the uniformity of school buses has not yet brought any impact on schools,” he added.
According to Fredrick Juma, a parent, discipline should begin at home so that it can be extended to school to give teachers an easy task .Most students are cruel and when exposed to discipline they even plan for pay back.
Inadequate teachers arealso another cause of the unrestas teachers are exposed to several tasksnd hence lack time to counsel or listen to the students’ needs.
This leads to developing a barrier between teachers and students. They employ a lot of effort in covering subject after subject hence no time to guide a learner or listen to their views.
Examfright has also contributed to unrest.Exams are around the corner and in most cases when students are approaching the KSCE period a lot of drama are experienced in schools. Students fail to prepare themselves in advance hence think of involving in unworthy behavior to resist change in anything. Early preparation can curb this factor among students.
Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has ordered all principals and their deputies to reside within the school compound with the aim ensuring safety of students.She put secondary school administrators on high alert following the recent spate of student unrest that has seen 10 dormitories torched in the second term.
The school heads will now be required to file daily security briefs with county education officials in order to rein in on the rising indiscipline in schools especially fire outbreaks.
They will also file daily reports on the discipline situation in their schools with the County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers.
