MP, Director Blame The Current Unrests In Schools On Adults, Politicians.

Research has proven that children often grow up to mimic the behaviour, beliefs and attitudes of adults and more so, their parents. For instance, children whose parents smoke are more likely to smoke themselves.

This was exactly the argument brought forth by one Kigo Wa Njenga, MP Gatundu North during the constituency’s secondary schools education Day in Kanjuku Secondary School Hall.

Kigo stressed that politician bore the biggest blame for they were the most affected in publicly displaying uncouth behaviour when agitating for certain issues that affected them.

“The unrests in schools must first be blamed on politicians. I always say that anytime we (politicians) raise our temperatures, the temperatures in schools also rise. Remember during the ‘bado mapambano’ phrase and all schools went on rampage. Look at the recent incidents of teargassing (of politicians) and fighting over IEBC and you can now see the schools following in tandem. I must say, when actually there is this kind of political temperature, students get incited into violence,” said Kigo.

He also blamed the students’ riots to a breakdown in communication between the teaching staff and the children themselves, pointing out that the modern world demanded that we talked to the children and give guidance as parents as opposed to what was previously the case where conflicts among the students were resolved through corporal punishment.

“Previously, we used to be caned. Today you can’t cane a child. So, teachers should come up with a better and appropriate way of handling the kids under their care.”

Alcohol and drug abuse was another reason that Kigo thought was part of the problem. This meant that parents needed to practice what they preached to their children. He called on more communication between the parents and the teachers where parents supported the teachers in promoting good behaviour amongst the students.

“What else do you expect when a parent blames or belittles a teacher in front of the child? The student will definitely look at the teacher with contempt!”

Harrison Muriuki, the Kiambu Director of Education said that even though the county has had no incidences of unrest, both the teaching staff and the parents needed to be vigilant to guard their children from any such eventuality. According to him, the matter was just a product of indiscipline and the lack of support of teachers by parents.

“Most of our parents today are child worshippers. They do what their children want them to do and they look up to the teachers to discipline their children for them instead of starting from home. It is purely indiscipline. Nothing else. And it is coming from home, not from our schools” said the director.

Otherwise, all the leaders present lamented on the poor performances of schools within the sub county in national exams.

They all blamed it on the negative attitude amongst the teachers towards the education of the children. It was for this reason that Gatundu North Education office scheduled a meeting with all the teachers so that they could chart the way forward.

“The performance of Gatundu North have not been very encouraging. You all know that if we remove St. Francis Girls Mang’u from Gatundu North, the mean score would be less than three,” said Muriuki.

He saw no reason for the poor results since the area schools were well staffed. He argued that it was not that they got below attitude students but was purely a problem of attitude amongst the teaching staff.

Gatundu North Deputy County Director of Education Mr. George Wachira warned the teachers that each one of them would ‘carry their own cross’ in matters of individual performances in schools. He reminded them that the dreams of every child in the area was still alive and it was their solemn duty to actualise their dreams.

He warned them that in future, they will face the wrath of the generation they have wasted over the years.

“Every child in Gatundu North has a dream. The dream of that child will be realised through you. If those dreams are not realised, there will be a problem. Instead of you enjoying your future in retirement, you will instead be investing in your security because the boys you wasted in class will be very busy coming for your money,” said Wachira.

Hon. Kigo reminded them that the government had invested heavily on education and it was up on the people of Gatundu North to take full advantage of the same.

In an effort to uplift the education levels, his CDF office had done seven new schools in the constituency and had projected to develop a computer lab in every secondary school. He was happy to note that the educational levels in the area were rising in recent times but noted that there was a long way ahead.

He also noted that there were several external forces that interfered with education in the area especially the availability of cheap labour in the neighbouring Thika Sub-County.

He promised to double the amount of bursaries to 7m as he worked with the teachers to generate a list of the neediest students so that he could help promote the level of education.