It has become normal every week to see a picture of a student who has disappeared on social media and even fliers giving details of the students and contacts of parents.
Most students who are reported missing are in upper primary and secondary schools. Students nowadays have no tolerance in schools unlike in the past. A slight provocation can make a student run from school or home, get married and even commit suicide.
This also explains increased cases of school unrest whenever a rule students don’t agree with is introduced, or close to exams. They find rebellion the only way to protest when they don’t agree. We cannot blame them, they are at a stage in their life when they experience changes with their bodies and minds and want things to go their way.
If a child does not want a particular school, parents should stop forcing them to go to that school. These children now have opportunities to be musicians, web designers, cartoonists, acrobats, entertainers, dancers, DJs, artists and many other careers parents of nowadays don’t consider as important.
The courses of some of these jobs are not offered in regular schools and children of this generation do not want to be stressed. Parents should also escort their children to schools as this is when they get an opportunity to escape. Let parents also monitor their children’s devices and the friends they keep. They get most of their ideas from the internet or their peers, some of whom may not know what they want or have their friends’ best interests at heart.
It would also not hurt to give the young teens some space to explore some new ideas and make mistakes which will teach them better, instead of saying later; they wish they tripped and fell.
Mombasa
