Over 170 secondary school heads in Kirinyaga convened at Kerugoya Boys High School to discuss the recent cases of strikes affecting schools in the county.
The meeting brought together the Regional Director of Education, Kirinyaga county security team led by the County Commissioner and County Heads of Education after 2 institutions; Kerugoya and Karia Boys, were closed indefinitely following the razing down of their dormitories thereby affecting normal learning.
Central Region Director of Education Sabina Aroni noted that most of the unrest in schools occurred in the second term of the school calendar.
She said some strikes were spontaneous while others have early signs and the principals should have a way of detecting them.
Ms. Aroni thanked the principals for doing the best to avoid unrest, calling them to identify the new tactics used by learners, their dissatisfactions and the way they stay in their dormitories.
She calls upon to headteachers to be in school always and respond to student needs in diplomatic way as well as include the teachers in reaching out to the student.
“Principal must stay in school compound, listen to any dissatisfaction from students and initiate dialogue with them and encourage all teachers to act as parents to create teamwork with student,” she said.
The Regional Director said nobody was implicating anybody in the unrest but in many cases, investigations have shown that there was the hand of a teacher as a contributing factor.
She asked principals to allow students to have entertainment and address them using appropriate language.
In the same occasion, Aroni noted the role of subordinate staff in unrest and called for vigilance by the school managers.
“Subordinate staff have been used as drug peddlers, to ferry petrol into the school compounds or are used to call for motorbikes that ferry illegal substances,” she revealed.
Kirinyaga County Commissioner Hussein Allasow said the buck stops with the principal as the Chief Officer in charge of the school despite many theories about of source school unrest.
Allasow noted that cases of indiscipline among learners was a major cause of school unrest and the principal must understand the behavior of their students.
“The principal must know the behaviour of his/her students. If you know those using bhang or cigarettes, why do you keep them in school?” Allasow wondered.
He expressed worries over recent cases where every time a fire was reported, the principal was out of the school noting that the security team relied on principals to detect and deter the strikes in schools.
Kirinyaga County Officer Lydia Mutegi said they expected principals to be in school 24 hours as it was their responsibility to ensure learners were comfortable.
She noted that most principals were not giving students avenues to express their dissatisfaction as part of resolutions they agreed in past meetings besides use of suggestion boxes and prefect bodies. She further urged school principals to stop ignoring the subordinate staff.
“Last year’s resolution was to give students avenues to raise their problems. We must return to having meetings every fortnight with students,” she said.
Mutegi told principals that school rules should not be imposed but rather agreed on by all stakeholders from teachers, board and students.
She further recommended full installation of CCTV cameras, repairing of porous fencing and checking on all people entering the school including the luggage.
The planning of the schools also was discussed as the firefighter truck could not access the burning dormitory in one of the schools.
Principal Mutira girls Dr. Eunice Njue thanked the security and Director of Education for organizing the meeting to brainstorm on the emerging issues and assured them of the Kirinyaga School heads’ commitment saying they would do all what it takes to stop the unrest.
She however attributed the increasing cases to media coverage which has made other schools adopt the trend seen in other schools.
John Kiama – in charge of fire brigade Kirinyaga County, said many schools have no direct communication to fire department making response time too long.
He asked all schools to save the hotline number 0177 234 567 and call anytime for assistance on fire extinguishing, prevention and humanitarian services.
Kiama regretted the cases where their truck was stoned by students when they tried to access the schools.
By Grace Njoki and Mutai Kipngetich
