Corporal punishment is not the answer to unrest in schools. Education stakeholders say
Corporal punishment is not the answer to unrest in schools. This is according to education experts and stakeholders.
According to Janet Ouko, the CEC for Education in Nairobi County, the law prohibits teachers from caning students. She, on the other hand, chastised parents who advocate for caning their children while failing to do the same at home.
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“If you cannot cane your child, stop asking teachers to cane the child for you, let it begin with you. Cane them thoroughly and the teacher will not need to do that,” she said.
Chairperson Kenya Private Schools Association, Mutheu Kasanga, states that the old days were a nightmare to students and reintroduction to the system would lead to worse cases of indiscipline.
“Before the law was changed, the issue of indiscipline was even more dangerous than we are discussing now. Take an example of the Kyanguli disaster, Bombolulu and St. Kizito. Corporal punishment was the cause of all those,” Mutheu said.
Mutheu insisted that a significant minority of recent arson cases in schools should not even spark such a debate, which had been deemed ineffective.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) chairman Omboko Milemba also said teachers will not cane students under the current legislature.
“The definition of corporal punishment include spanking, hitting and pinching, and we cannot go with this direction until we do a legislative framework to change Children’s Act,” said Milemba.
Early this year, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion vowed to reject the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools stating that it will generate conflicts between teachers and learners.
KNUT maintained that the reintroduction of the cane would endanger the lives of teachers, especially teenagers.
“We are not going to accept the return of corporal punishment so that teachers can again put in conflict with the learners, to cane the learners.
“If the cane is going to be returned let a police officer be posted to every school. because what is going to happen particularly, the teenagers they are going to kill teachers. We are going to witness mass killing of teachers .” said KUPPET.
National Parents Association chair Nicholas Maiyo suggested the creation of alternative institutions to deal with indiscipline students.
“Create alternative schools for children who even after all efforts by the teachers and parents don’t comply with the school rules to the transition so that the incidence of unrest doesn’t avert the official policy of free and compulsory basic education.” Said Maiyo.
