Restore discipline in schools, Garissa commissioner urges teachers and parents

Parents and teachers have been urged to find a way of solving the challenges experienced in schools leading to fires and unrest.

This was said by Garissa county commissioner Boaz Cherutich when he spoke to the press at Garissa High School on Wednesday.

In Garissa, two schools, Garissa High and NEP Girls, had two of their dormitories razed down by unknown arsonists in November.

This prompted the school management to temporarily close them down.

The board of NEP Girls High School resolved to temporarily suspend the boarding wing of the institution

The resolution was among recommendations reached after a daylong crisis meeting held to address the fire incident.

The board decided to suspend the boarding wing because 80 per cent of the boarders live nearby and could operate from home.

Cherutich, who chairs the county security team, said both parents and teachers have a role to play in ensuring that discipline is restored in learning institutions.

“Schools have re-opened and learning has resumed. We expect that parents used the short holiday to talk to their children. Going forward we expect that issues of indiscipline will be a thing of the past,” he said.

Cherutich said failing to contain the situation at this point was not an option because the society would pay the biggest price of having a high number of school dropouts who would then turn into criminals.

He said the stakeholders meeting slated for this month will bring together elected leaders, school management boards, head teachers and parents.

It will not only seek to find the root cause of indiscipline in the school but come up with ways and means of addressing them, he added.

“The government is investing huge amounts of funds in the education sector by expanding the infrastructure.

"It will be regrettable if the same is set ablaze by rowdy students who don’t value such efforts by government and the sacrifices by their parents in bettering their lives,” Cherutich said.

In December, East Africa PCEA head Rev Patrick Mutahi said the unrest in schools was a true reflection of how rotten the society has become.

“They copy you as a society and it is a pity we have become one that thrives on lawlessness. We are always on the streets chanting ‘haki yetu’ and then you expect our children will be disciplined when they go to school?" he said.

Mutahi said the majority of children misbehaving have not been brought up in a church environment.

“If parents are constantly quarrelling in front of the children, how do you expect them to have respect and be well mannered? We all need to style up and change if we are to have a good society,” he said.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)