Prior to the resumption of schools on April 25, principals are proposing a slew of punitive laws aimed at both parents and pupils.
School chiefs recommended the implementation of a new regulation that would see parents of indiscipline kids pay millions in damages amid unrest during their annual conference in Mombasa on Monday, April 18.
Headteachers are now proposing that rules be changed so that students who are found guilty of organizing strikes in schools are held individually responsible rather than being punished in a broad manner.
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We shouldn’t punish everyone, in my opinion, because some of the children are innocent, and the scheme may have been devised by a few adults. If this is the true, charging everyone will result in the students and their parents being punished, according to Kenya Secondary Heads Association (KSSHA) chair Indimuli Kahi.
The school leaders also rekindled calls for drug testing to be made mandatory in classrooms. This idea, which has been shelved several times, aims to address increased occurrences of drug and substance usage among students, which has been highlighted as one of the causes of dissatisfaction in educational institutions, according to headteachers.
There would be a need for guidelines to be adopted that would provide a proper legal manner of doing the tests so that we as parents and schools could be informed of any instances of student drug misuse.
It would obviously require the presence of two parties, the school and the parents, because if the school performed it alone in the absence of the parents, the parent would be concerned, and vice versa,” Kahi explained.
According to Kahi, both parents and teachers must be involved in the process of developing rules that would ensure a holistic execution of the idea.
In addition, school administrators are proposing that the law be reviewed in order to restore corporal punishment in the classroom.
When it came to the abolition of boarding schools, Kahi was adamant that it would not be the answer to the persistent occurrences of discontent.
According to Kahi, boarding schools have established a tradition and an accepted standard in Kenya, and he has urged for new steps to make institutions more hospitable.
Admission for form one students will commence on May 3, with the rest of the students and learners returning to class for the new academic year on Monday following week.
