There has been a recent upsurge of school fires, with students burning dormitories and classrooms in many places across the country.
The most infamous is the Buruburu Girls High School case, known for its urban locale and urbane clientele.
Parents were televised baying for the blood of the school principal, whom one mother accused of not listening to the grievances of the students. Mind you, this was a new principal and the parents were demanding that she leaves immediately.
This incident reminded me of a similar case in my former school in 2019. Cheetah, my dormitory while in Form 1 and where I was prefect. I superintended older students in Forms 2, 3 and 4.
It burnt under mysterious circumstances.
Coming to think of it, was it that mysterious? The truth of the matter is that a closer look will always reveal the real reason behind the inferno. In this particular incident, there was a succession management issue.
A principal who joined the school while I was in Form 4, finding me as the students’ head student/president, had retired after being there for a record 17 years.
His deputy who had been at the school for 26 years was bypassed to find a successor. A new principal was transferred from another school. This created resentment amongst the students and staff (teaching and non-teaching), causing the crisis.
As a result, the deputy was transferred to head another similar institution, as the donations to reconstruct the dormitory started flowing, including from yours truly.
It’s curious to note that most of these infernos happen around exam time and one wonders why. This is because the students have a common reason to rally together in order to avoid the exams, especially if they are ill-prepared.
On the other hand, any grievance that is unresolved provides fertile ground to foment a crisis, especially because disgruntled teachers and members of staff can engineer it by inciting students against the administration.
So, on one hand, the teachers may want to create a crisis in order to enable some of them to be shifted and others to be promoted, while the students fear the promotional criteria of exams for them to move to the next level.
This convergence of diametrically opposed, yet similar outcomes for both teachers and students, helps create the very friction necessary for the infernos and strikes.
It follows there could be legitimate concerns from the students and teachers that will always need to be addressed. However, the deeply rooted issues are critical if at all there can be a permanent solution to this perennial problem.
Lives have been lost, as in the infamous Kyanguli High School incident that affected scores of students.
In fact, we had a colleague on campus who was going by that name. Talking of university, the same also applies. I was involved at least twice while on campus as a student leader in KU to quell strikes that always erupted around exam time.
Students who were ill-prepared were always the ones inciting others to go to ‘Thika Road’ to demonstrate, a clear manifestation that the same problem persisted even in tertiary institutions.
So what are some of the underlying issues that need to be addressed going forward?
To begin with, teacher promotion based on merit is critical to inspire confidence and a sense of fairness.
Secondly, the Covid-19 pressures to finish the syllabus within a very short time to adjust to the school calendar, has been is a great concern to learners.
Thirdly, the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools has increased pressure on students. They are now sharing triple-decker beds within the same facilities that were previously used by fewer students.
This has led to higher cases of indiscipline.
Fourthly, the shift from online to regular learning has led to withdrawal syndrome for the teenagers and the ‘no phone in school’ policy has made the situation worse.
The kids thus want to go back to their gadgets that they use to help them to compensate for their absent parents who are busy working out there.
In between, they are exposed to sexual content that has led to a lot of teen pregnancies out of illicit relationships with some teachers, older people and more so with their boys or girls schools.
Shortened vacations, thus, don’t give them adequate time to meet their friends. They then come up with ways to force the breaks. There is also the issue of increased cases of mental health conditions associated with a peri/post Covid-19 crisis that has seen a surge in suicides, marital break ups or separations. This has also hurt the students.
The Ministry of Education thus needs to do more than just issuing orders if the country is to find a long-term solution to this perennial problem. Otherwise, the same issue shall keep on recurring every other year.
(Edited by V. Graham)
