HIGH SCHOOL TORCHING SHOULD COME TO HALT

By Jackson Muli, mulijackson95@gmail.com

More than 100 government secondary schools in Kenya have been set alight in the last couple of months - with many of the arson incidents being blamed on students. Property worth millions of money has been lost in the fire incidents. Many students have lost their lives too in the incidents across the country. This coincides with the tragedy that happened a few years ago at Kyanguli mixed secondary school in Machakos County where 58 children were burned to death. "It was in the main school dormitory. Fifty-eight are dead, another 28 are seriously injured," police spokesman Dola Indidis said.

Many speculations are being aired on the causes of the school burning. This comes barely a day after police arrested up to 109 students as 45 others were charged in court over the unrest countrywide. Blame shift games are being played between the government and school heads among other stake holders. Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’ on Tuesday dragged school heads into the mess, blaming them for failing to put in place proper structures of engaging with students.

The arsonists are complaining of high workloads and shortened holidays which the government has shortened, especially the August Holiday. As part of government reforms, the August school holiday has been shortened by two weeks, and students are not due to break up until 12 August.

The parents are too involved in the blame game as they see the main root of all these misconduct of their children is due to the policy that the government implemented of withdrawing caning in schools.

"For me the solution is the return of the cane. I went to school with it and you were caned when you messed up in school. That is the only medicine.

"They have been given freedom now and they don't want to be caned because they know their rights.

"Those rights are the ones which are making the students lack discipline." A parent of Tabaka High School speaking BBC said.

Teachers’ union is said to be under pressure. The teacher-student ratio is skewed which is a situation which the students are taking advantage of. This is according to Akello Misori from the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers who was speaking to the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme. He also added that the guidance and counseling teachers are overwhelmed because the teachers who handle such cases are overloaded with other academic workloads.

The Education Cabinet Secretary is now over the school heads and the school management. In giving evidence to a Senate committee last week, he appeared to blame local disputes and bad school management for some arson cases.

 Management of schools has been hijacked by local politics and clanism. Are people burning schools... so that documents and records are burned in offices to avoid accountability?" "That's why I'm saying the challenges we have are related to institutionalised impunity," he speculated.

The blame-shifts will not bear any fruits rather than inciting the core stake holders. Immediate solution should be sought to bring back the students who are at home at the expense of their academics. The Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi' should also work hand in hand with the school heads and the parents to resolve the issue instead of blaming the school heads of the whole matter. School heads should also incorporate the students’ council in their discussions and listen to the students’ grievances and try to come into consensus. Parents too should seek deep in the thoughts of their children to define whether there is any external pressure; may be from drug abuse or peer pressure. All these parties should incorporate their findings and recommendations to put the situation in halt.

Some constitutional clause amendments should also be done especially the one pertaining canning. Some student mistakes need a little pressure to rectify. Canning is one of the effective measures that can correct small issues which eventually develop to be nation-wide chaos like the one the nation is experiencing.

The CS should seek to incorporate all these groups for effective team work and coming up with better solutions and ensuring safety of Kenyan schools. Blame-shifting of a problem is not the solution but adding more trouble.