A number of schools in Kenya are increasingly reinforcing fencing with iron sheets, revealing the struggle of school administrators to control movement of learners.
The recent reports of teenagers leaving their homes “just to have fun” have brought to the fore how difficult it is for parents and teachers to raise children to the age of majority where they could discern and decide with little or no harm.
Since the schools were closed almost everywhere across the world to control the spread of Covid-19, there were fears that before resumption, many learners would have been mauled by unplanned pregnancies, deaths linked to violence, early marriages, and branching into menial jobs at the expense of schooling.
Some of the young people have said they ran away from home pressed by throbbing boredom and push to unwind, revealing how difficult it has been for parents and guardians in keeping their young ones to the straight and narrow while not knowing when schools would return.
American author Max Brooks says “Often, a school is your best bet–perhaps not for education but certainly for protection from an undead attack.” Undead attack, it is! Undead attack is the unusual or camouflaged danger. Younger people say, “we went to have fun” not knowing how the said fun fans the known and unknown dangers such as venereal diseases, HIV/Aids, unwanted pregnancy, and death, all hurting the chances of a better future.
Every second, danger is lurking and those who reduce chances of harm can make useful decisions. Unfortunately, many of the teenagers realise they took the wrong turn when it is too late.
Interestingly, in Tanzania schools are not fenced. While reaching this level of calm may take time, Kenya will have to find a way of speaking with the learners to turn them into curious but relaxed souls that know what is right and wrong, of course allowing some age- or experience-related slip-ups.
This revives the debate started by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of hiring counsellors when arson left schools in ruins across the country a few years ago.
Without a doubt, younger people demanding to “have fun” could be worse than physical fire. It would be the work of the psychologists to help the fun-hungry brigade to arrive at the right unwinding. Guided well in school, the teens will know what to do everywhere they go.
Keeping students safe will rank among the sources of depression for school administrators, who lose sleep worrying about the safety of excited young people thinking the grass is greener outside the barbed-wire or iron sheet fences.
This probably explains why the teachers are trying all tricks in the book to secure the schools and learners.
Former secretary of the TSC Benjamin Sogomo recently listed a number of things that make school headship a high pressure job. Student discipline, national exam performance, Form One selection and admission are some of the causes of stress with admissions as “a major stressor” for principals and boards of management, he said.
Mr Sogomo, writing in the Daily Nation newspaper in September 2020, said the stress levels were likely to get worse come January 2021 when Covid-19 protocols will be administered under “financially straining” circumstances.
Covid-19 remains a major test for learners and schools based on the tough protocols that rule out stress-relief practices like sports and outings where students meet to laugh, to joke, to tell stories, to show off and to appreciate talent in areas like debating and examinable subjects.
A section of teachers says the iron-sheet fencing became fashionable when school arsonist attacks went viral — to use the social media language — and suspects could easily sneak through the barbed wire fences or hedges.
While the recent reports of teen parties have hit the country with lots of worry, the happenings are only a wee bit of what is expected in schools and homes under the more restricted life of Covid-19. It will be necessary that teachers employer TSC, curriculum agency KICD, and the entire education ministry budget for the employment of counselling psychologists in primary and secondary schools, a promise that has been on ice for years.
If the government could set aside Sh1.9 billion for school desks under an economic stimulus programme necessitated by Covid-19 woes, it will be more prudent to budget for employing counsellors who will spend more time with the young learners whose upbringing is a major investment for Kenya’s growth.
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Surely psychologist are highly needed for betterment of be our children future