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written by mkosakabila , August 05, 2008

One of the reasons why teaching in the Western world is so unappealing to me is for precisely what Kiraitu states. It repels me to have my overall performance pegged onto the evaluations of somewhat sleep-deprived and bewildered (not all of them though)very young adults, as against having my peers rate me. It never occured to me they could be senselessly whipped into shape....

I also never thought Kenyan high-schoolers that wayward and deserving of corporal punishment. I taught for a short while, quite a thrill really....save for occasionally running into some at carnivore, who should've been in school, sound asleep.

For some strange reason we've chosen not to persuade but to humiliate them.

Unfortunate missing of the point
written by Kimemia , August 05, 2008

Violent riots in our public high schools where there before caning was banned and no one has provided solid evidence that its withdrawal had any impact on the severity or frequency of such. No one seems to want to prove that somehow it will be in any way affected by the return of the cane, beyond some sick fantasy of beating other people's children into submission.
What a violent country we hail from!

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written by mkosakabila , August 05, 2008

Someone somewhere said the riots were caused by sleep-deprivation and hunger....this must be an unusual year... hunger....still, how do you cane sleep deprivation and hunger away? Seriously, they dont even know the causes!

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written by abdulmote , August 05, 2008

It is a shame that such a government comprising of people presumably of such intellect and knowledge would succumb to naivety of imposing a knee-jack reaction, to a national crises of such magnitude. As Kimemia was trying to point out above, canning or the lack of it has never been proven to influence behaviour of students in our learning institutions. On the other hand, its effects remain unkown and therefore re-introduction of the same is nothing but a misplaced and desperate measure at dealing with a development that may have acquired complex and un-addressed fundamnetals, as a reflection of the direction our society is currently taking.

Having said that, physical violence as a tact is a means of subdueing the weaker and vulnerable who may try to resist the imposition of forceful demands, without the easier and requisite explanation which indeed may help to convince and inform the subject target, through reasoning and application of logic, a path which ironincally is the basis for learning in the first place.

It follows that such a remedy of corporal punishment upon our vulnerable students will only serve to hide the cracks and underlying failures our society is going through, so much so and at the expense of trying to find out what exactly ails our society, and therefore be able to find an appropriate long lasting solution for the sake of our societal wellbeing.

Having said that, I cannot help but think that the recent breakdown of discipline in our schools, is but a general reflection of our nation's behaviour and the destructive attitude as led by our politicians, in the manner they have themselves adopted, as the preferred means of getting their demands granted irrespective of the merits therein.

This indeed goes against the principles of the so called democracy, in complete contradiction to what some of them have been saying, but falls in line with the trends of authoritarian, dictatorial and brutish norms, which should have no space of consideration in our societies at all today.

As a way forward, the government should not have opted for a quick fix such as given, but instead should have boldly and methodically confronted the crises at hand, by systematically investigating what the true causes could have been, which led our children to behave in the undesirable way they have done. But such a route would inevitably call for comprehensive self examining of our societal behaviour, starting right at the top and begining with our political leadership, something which I don't think any of them is ready and daring at all to suggest its initiation.

What a pathetic nation Kenya appears to be!

As a side note; can a cabinet 'decree' override a parliamentary Act without the Parliament's consent? Anybody?

mrs
written by maryann , August 06, 2008

on one hand reintroducing canning in our schools might not provide the solution to the much needed answers on why our kids have gone on rampage and caused severe damages, but on the other, the demands of this kids are somewhat outrageous,i mean how do you ask for a bus with DVD, of what value is it to their learning process?some of them i'm sorry to say do not have such facilities in their homes,there are othe more important things.on the issue of food, i understand it could be true especially of government schools but do you also want to tell me that private schools the likes of sunshine school also faces food shortage? i beg to differ.parents have a much bigger role to play in this because as they say, charity begins at home.we must learn to talk to our children openly and make them responsible citizens,they(Kids) must now demostrations and destructions work to their disadvantage.they should learn from our universities which have had to learn the hard way and that everything has a price.too much fredom comes with a price to pay

university rampages
written by Stephen Wanyama , August 06, 2008

JKUAT students are also on strike. Will lecturers now also plead permission to put sticks to those student's backsides?

Education and effort values watered down
written by wuod aketch , August 07, 2008

Caricaturing the students (that they want DVDs in their buses) wont change the fact that the ministry of education has failed on it's tasks. Most of us are forgetting the fiasco of the release of last year's examination results that were tampered with on several occasions. How do you expect students to respect something that is no longer considered as an end to the hard work they have been putting up for several years? Passing exams was devalued lastly by those people at the ministry and examination council. The aka professor Saitoti has really done damage to the education in this country. I think it is also high time Kibaki stopped giving his dinosaur opinions. His children especially the one who was sucking the Armenian brothers is a counter example of what young Kenyans should become. Can he tell us that he used the cane on his children?
I address this message to Kibaki. Instead of selling the country to foreigners in pretext that you were developing the economy, you should have concentrated your forces in building the education foundation of learning institutions in the country.
If we look at the emerging countries that are giving the West sleepless nights economic wise, one finds that they started by developing their learning and research institutions first.
If this country wants to get to 2030 successfully, investing in education and research should be a priority for the prime minister. No need to talk about the president, his lights went off long time ago. This does not mean only pumping money into the two, but doing the necessary educational reforms. Education should be burnt into the constitution. By the way, where are we with the writing of the new constitution? Everybody is talking of 2012 but no word on this. Are we ready to see the 2007 election debacle in 2012?

Wait a minute
written by mkosakabila , August 07, 2008

True, we may not agree with Emilio re the caning of students, but that's absolutely insufficient grounds to overlook some qualitative advances, including in increasing access to primary education, the quality of which can of course be faulted by we, the armchair policy analysts.

One other improvement is that the good president is no longer the chancellor of all public universities, neither is there interference in the running of the same. The low performance of the public universities that you so lament is also a result of the administration of the university itself. Ethnic bickering and competition, production of research products (if any) that hardly bear any relevance to the broader society, the chasing of cheap consultancies, and a deficiency of a critical mass of entrepreneurial individuals who can raise funds for projects and programs, are some of the things to think about as you revert to what you know best--throwing your stones.

One thing I have to agree with you though is the constitution. ODM and its leaders leveraged their murderous campaign on change, the most fundamental being the constitution, which is what, I will not call him the Bondo Bumpkin, Right Honorable Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised. This is where his energies should be focused, instead of jumping around the Mau diverting attention from a most critical and underlying problem in Kenya.

And why so angry, anyway? Calm down, even a little, as it may give you some perspective, including with your language, which.....sucks.