Pupil Poor Behaviour in Kenyan Schools Increases As Pupils Riot & Burn Schools

In Kenya, students in numerous schools have been rioting. Many of the students say it is because of corporal punishment. Ten more schools have today been hit by unrest as the Ministry of Education attempted to crack down on students accused of burning down dormitories and other school property.

Investigators have found condoms, diesel, cigarettes and alcohol, among other things, in the rubble of burnt dormitories.

The Governement says that students involved in organising the unrest would be expelled and prevented from joining other public schools.

Among the latest to be hit by the wave of unrest was Nairobi school, a national school. Students from the institution were sent home yesterday after some of them were found with four litres of diesel. It is believed they had planned to use the fuel to burn school buildings.

Other top schools affected by the unrest included Kabarnet High, Sunshine Secondary and Nyahururu Secondary. Eight secondary schools in Nyahururu and its environs were closed indefinitely after students went on strike.

At least 30 students were interrogated at Nyahururu police station as doctors at the local government hospital removed a nail cutter from the abdomen of a prefect. The prefect from Nyahururu High School had been attacked by colleagues who also stabbed him twice.

Other schools affected in the area were Githungucu, St Christopher, Ziwani, Holy Family, St Cecilia, Falling Waters and Fountain of Hope. At Fountatin of Hope, four students were arrested while dousing a dormitory with petrol.

Wednesday, school inspectors were instructed to lead the campaign to enforce the tough rules introduced to end strikes in schools. The inspectors from the Department of Quality Assurance will visit all affected schools to investigate the causes of the strikes.

Senior ministry officials met under the chairmanship of the Education Permanent Secretary, Prof Karega Mutahi, and directed the department to move with speed to find out what went wrong and why students were boycotting mock examinations.

Last week, Prof Karega said there had been a rumour that the mock exam results would be used to determine students’ scores in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.

On Wednesday, education officials decided that students who boycotted the mock exams will face disciplinary measures. “They will be treated as those who have gone on strike for defying authorities. Even principals and teachers in the affected schools will be investigated to determine if they had a role in the strikes and examination boycott,” said a senior officer who requested anonymity.

The rules announced in Parliament by Education minister Sam Ongeri included a ban on the use of mobile phones in all learning institutions. He directed that DVDs and music systems fitted in school buses be removed. He also ordered schools to stop buying luxury buses with TVs and powerful music systems.

The minister also directed affected schools to hand over to the police all students who either organised or took part in the violence. More than 300 schools have been rocked by violent strikes in the past one month.

In another development, five NGOs have started lobbying MPs to retain the ban on caning in schools. They fear that the strikes and the public outcry would influence the Government to reverse the ban introduced in 2001.

The NGOs, which included Human Rights Watch and Cradle among others yesterday wrote to the Government urging that the caning ban be retained.

Use of corporal punishment in schools was the subject of a heated debate between 20 MPs who failed to agree on whether caning should be re-introduced to enforce discipline. Majority of the MPs who are members of the Parliamentary Caucus on Children and the Parliamentary Committee on Education were against the punishment being re-introduced.

Students have said that caning in schools was one of the reasons why they have been going on strike. On Wednesday, the Catholic Church voiced its opposition to the re-introduction corporal punishment in schools. Through the Kenya Episcopal Conference head of education commission, Bishop Maurice Crowley, the church said re-introducing caning would be a knee-jerk reaction to the wave of strikes.

“Having been caned myself, I don’t advocate it for anybody,” Bishop Crowley of Kitale Diocese told a press conference in Nairobi.

He and Bishop David Kamau of Nairobi said caning will be a violent reaction to the current crisis in schools. They said teachers should use other methods to guide students to ensure discipline.

Although corporal punishment was outlawed after enactment of the Children’s Act in 2001, child rights activists Wednesday that children were still being caned in schools. According to them, the Act does not explicitly ban corporal punishment.

“There have been too few prosecutions of teachers who seriously abuse children; more needs to be done to facilitate access to justice for those parents and children who want to take their case to court,” the letter dated July 23 said.

According to them, post-election violence was also to blame for the student unrest. The lobby groups also said that teachers had not been trained on alternative methods of disciplining students. Only a few have been taken for counselling courses.

In their letter, the NGOs asked MPs, the minister for Education and the minister of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs to introduce laws which explicitly prohibiting corporal punishment in schools and homes.

But Mr Bifwoli Wakoli (Bumula), Mr Fred Outa (Nyando), Dr Boniface Khalwale (Ikiolomani), Mr Odhiambo Bwire (Butula) and Dr Victor Munyaka (Machakos Town) said the ban on caning in schools should be lifted. According to them, caning was the only way to discipline a child.

“It is a way of telling a child that he has done wrong and one has to do it out of love. Otherwise it is wrong when a teacher canes a child out of anger,” Mr Wakoli, who is a teacher by profession, said.

Mr Bwire, who also taught in high school for 32 years, said caning should not be seen as a way of punishing a child but rather of helping the child to become responsible.

But Mrs Millie Adhiambo-Mabona (nominated) who spoke against corporal punishment said: “At Lenana School, children are caned and they still went on strike.”

“We must discipline our children but there are different methods of doing it rather than caning,” she said.

Other MPs called for dialogue between the teachers and their students.