The Ministry of Education has been urged to mainstream guidance and counseling training for all teachers as an alternative to caning in schools to rectify negative behavior.
Speaking at Mount Kenya University’s Kisii branch at Gensonso Division Bonchari constituency in Kisii County, the Institution’s Founder, Prof. Simon Gichuru said counseling was more sustainable in helping learners develop life skills to deal with their challenges.
Prof Gichuru who is also the Chairman of Rural Electrification corporation decried caning saying it was not the best remedy to shape behavior as one would easily regress after the pain was gone.
Prof. Gichuru was on a fact finding mission on the status of renewable energy centers in the area when he recommended guidance and counseling as the best means for developing responsible members of the society.
He said such skills will enable teachers to identify abnormal behavior early enough before it escalates into what has been witnessed in the recent past.
Prof. attributed the myriad of the criminal cases to the long stay away from the busy school programmes which he said kept the learners busy from negative thoughts and consumption of illicit substances.
He said MKU will be offering short courses in guidance and counseling for teachers and appealed to other institutions of higher learning to do the same.
On energy, the chairman appealed to the county governments to encourage utilization of alternative energy in a bid to curb issues of land degradation caused by traditional methods.
Noting that many families had livestock which could provide enough manure for generation of the biogas, Prof. Gichuru encouraged a shift from use of charcoal and firewood to biogas.
The Prof. said there were 16 energy centers in 16 counties around the country so far, adding that the government was working with all county governments to provide infrastructure for establishment of one in every county.
On the progress of schools’ electrification, Prof. Gichuru said 95 per cent of all schools in the area were connected to the national grid, while the remaining were either connected or in the process of being connected to the solar system.
by Clinton Nyamumbo/Jane Naitore
