What’s this madness in boarding schools?

What sort of little devils are we raising called children? Children who want to burn down their dormitories and wreck everything in their boarding schools? Isn't it time parents, teachers, government, and indeed, whole communities, did something? 

Listen to Chief Administrative Secretary in the State Department of Public Works Wavinya Ndeti speaking as a leader and a mother: “Show me your parents, show me your leaders, I'll tell you who you are. Monkeys see, monkeys do. If leaders and parents have become fake, with no morals, and they talk ovyo ovyo, and are mannerless, with no values, what do you expect our children to be?" 

A child's behaviour is moulded at home. The character s/he will develop starts from there. Let's not beat about the bush here. Parents have a primary and overriding duty. It's a role many have botched, or simply abdicated. In this day and age, is there any strict parental oversight, for instance, over what the youth do in their spare time, the company they keep, or the many sorts of peer pressures brought to bear on them? What about family dysfunctions? Or is it societal decay? 

Unrest in schools usually revolves around “bad” food, or domineering administrators. Yet the discontent is becoming increasingly frivolous. Recently, students in a reputable Rift Valley secondary school went on the rampage after they were told they could not watch a televised English Premier League football game. Then the girls of the nearby sister school simply walked out and went home “in solidarity” with their brothers. 

Last week, the girls of Kangubiri, a secondary school in Nyeri County, shocked villagers when they fled the school while shrieking as if demons had possessed them. They were protesting against being given tea without bread for breakfast. The spoilt brats also wanted peanut butter on the menu. Holy Jesus! Peanut butter for a rural school? 

In the short span of a month, there have been 37 schools across the country where dormitories have been torched. More than 40 students have been arrested. Why they target only dormitories beats me. 

World of don’ts

Students are suddenly abandoning classes and heading home without warning, like in the Kangubiri example, leaving their teachers stupefied. Students of Muhoho High School in Kiambu County did just that on November 4, with a twist. At supper time, the students plotted to cause drama since other schools in the neighbourhood were having incidents of unrest. They summoned the headmaster and informed him they were going home peacefully for a “self-assigned” break, and assured him that they wouldn’t burn or destroy anything in the school. As they left, they texted the headmaster thus: “We'll let you know when we want to return.” The cheek! 

Juveniles are very impressionable. When teachers go on their strikes, as they frequently do, waving twigs and dancing 'ndombolo' – while bleating "Haki Yetu! Haki Yetu!", aren't the students watching? What do you think they think? Or rather want to ape?

It's no accident that our youth display all manner of negatives these days. They won't register to vote. They don't want to be Covid-vaccinated. They don't want Huduma Namba. They don't want anything with a whiff of officialdom. Their peculiar world is of don'ts and more don'ts. These are rebels groping for a cause. Only that as yet, this cause has yet to crystallise. 

The stuff that fascinates this age-set are dramas of celebrity politicians and their slay queen ex-partners. These are the shenanigans they find rivetting. Otherwise anything about politics bores them stiff. Which is foolish because if they harnessed the power of their numbers, they would change Kenya forever. 

Modern technology has offered the youth an alternative platform to ventilate: social media. It's a giant bubble, near almighty. 

The youth wrap themselves around this powerful medium for hours on end, like a drug habit. It offers a virtual world of instant peer-to-peer communication that is not constrained by traditional forms of adult control. It is unmediated, just as the youth love it to be. But it can also be toxic. Nor do the youth use this social media tool in a way the parents would find constructive. 

Approved schools

It's a strange new world where traditional authority figures don't matter any more.  Everything is a free-for-all. Former inmates of borstal institutions (the so-called "Approved" schools) now hold high rank in civil society and are the faces the youth see when they spare a minute from their smart phones to glance at TV. Yes, this has become their world. A world of unceasing rebellion. 

Incidentally, what became of the "approved" schools of old? Do they still exist? We must bring them back. They served an invaluable role of separating the incorrigible students from the well-behaved ones. And we must bring back the cane – in a measured way – to deal with rampant disciplinary cases in schools. 

Which raises the question: how do we strike a balance between what to criminalise and what school administrators can punish internally? 

This question is crucial since the culprits are essentially teenagers. Personally, I think a line can be drawn –and criminal law invoked – in arson cases that result in deaths and massive destruction of property. 

Suddenly we are hearing all manner of things from policy wonks about how "complicated" the problem is. They are talking of "deep and systemic" issues in the education system that must be tackled. 

You will soon see a task force appointed with pompous terms of reference. It will then release a report that is unreadable and unimplementable. The generation of my mum didn't think twice when we misbehaved. A thorough whipping was enough to sort us out. 

[email protected]