By Lucy Mugo
Why all the High School riots crisis? This is a question many parents and the entire country is asking.
I did a little survey during the midterm break and interacted with several students – both girls and boys – and found very interesting answers on why there is contunued unrest in school. This was done in a very friendly way and we had a long discussion. These are some of the justifications laid out by the participants:
“We just don’t want be in school in December. This is meant for holidays,” one participant said. Being in school in December is not adding up in the students’ minds. Arnold Bennett says, ‘Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.’ It takes time to adapt to change. Change is always resisted. In this case, students were not prepared for the change on time. Initially they were to be in school for 2 months with no midterm. We needed to give them an easier way of adopting to change, maybe by way of dialogue. Open forums should be encouraged where teachers and students meet and discuss issues freely in an informal environment where the students do not feel intimidated.
Secondly, lack of extracurricular activities was highlighted. According to French sociologist Emile Durkheim, human beings are essentially social beings. Extracurricular activities give students an opportunity to socialize. When they go for inter-schools extracurricular activities they meet new friends, they exchange ideas even with the opposite sex which gives them a way to relieve academic stress. I remember when I was in school we could do anything to be on the list of extracurricular activities. When you enclose teenagers in one area with all the energies going on, it might turn into a negative experience.
In addition, too much of Curriculum Work and Syllabus completion pressure was also brought up. Every subject teacher is looking forward to finish the syllabus before time and the students’ brains are supposed to absorb the syllabus within the short period. This is puts a lot of pressure in students. The marathon program is too much with very little resting time. Some school programs start as early as 4am in the morning and close at 10pm in the evening. This looks like a military training only it is not physical. Despite the curriculum catch-up, we need to see them as humans and not as robots to be fed with information. They need time to digest and also rest their minds.
Next, it was noted that generally there are a few deviant students who don’t want to be in school. They are there to pass time and leave when time comes. There is an African proverb which says ‘The rotten apple spoils his companions’, meaning hanging out with crooked fellows will make one crooked too. This group of students react to very small triggers, they overreact to seek attention. A good example is when you deny boys to watch an European football match. To some who don’t understand why they are in school it’s suicidal. Such characters need to be picked out and be reformed through guidance and counseling.
Peer pressure is another identified cause for unrest. This is evident as one school is torched you find a wave of unrest as other schools try to conform. A lot of damage in property this year was experienced just because one school started and others wanted to follow suit. It’s recommended that every school start a guidance and counseling department with at least one qualified counselor as a way to curb the vice.
In connection to peer pressure, Drugs and Drugs Abuse came up. Most students acknowledged a lot of their friends are involved in this especially during the long ‘Corona Holiday’. Parents left their children unattended and unaccountable of the time they had at hand. This ruined many children making them turn to peer influence and engage in bad habits. A lot of misbehavior and laxity in school was noted over the terms after the “Corona” period and this is blamed much to the parenting systems at home.
Whle the school torching spree has died down for now, we cannot rule out that there will be others in the future. One waay that schools can mitigate the huge expenditure of doing repairs after riots is by liaising with insurance companies to cover their schools.
I kindly urge all schools to consider taking School Insurance. Parents have suffered before when it comes to reconstruction of the damaged buildings. We come to your aid whenever this unfortunate incidents happen. Whenever and wherever.
Ms Lucy Mugo is the CEO of Ryma Insurance Agency.
