Is your child ready for Form One?

All set to join Form One: Some schools have started orientation programmes to help new students adjust. Photos/CHRIS OJOW

The selection of students joining Form One is over, and many pupils who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last year are eagerly waiting to ‘graduate’ to secondary school.

A few will go to their dream schools, others to their parents’ dream schools, and still others to schools that did not even feature among their choices. All these children have certain expectations of what their new life is going to be like.

Most of these expectations depend on the type of primary school they attended, a factor that is likely to influence their behaviour in their new school.

The differences in expectations will probably be best played out in public secondary schools, which admit students from all types of social backgrounds.

“There are those students – and they form the majority – whose parents struggle to pay the fees in private primary schools so that the children can “access quality education and pass national examinations,” says Lydia Ngwiri, a counselling psychologist and deputy head teacher at Kiambu High School.

“But these parents are not ready for the struggle with exorbitant fees in private secondary schools and, therefore, can only look forward to their child joining a good public secondary school.”

Then there is the group of students from well-to-do families who did not have to struggle to maintain their children in private primary schools, but whose parents want them to join public secondary schools known for their good overall performance.

These two groups of children will meet in public boarding secondary school with the expectations that life in their new school will be the same as it was in their previous schools, if not better.

Disappointed

However, in many instances, they end up disappointed. In many private boarding schools, students do not do any manual work such as cleaning the dormitories, weeding flower beds, cutting grass or even washing their own clothes. In contrast, students in many public schools do such work as a matter of routine.

So it comes as a shock to students from private schools when they are told to do manual work; some have never done it, work even at home.

“Some cry when asked to clean a toilet, a job mostly done by Form Ones. And their parents don’t understand why the children should be made to work, either. Some make things worse by making comments that make the child hate the work even more, instead of encouraging them,” notes Ngwiri.

She says she has seen cases where parents ask to be allowed to collect their children’s dirty clothes so they can be washed and ironed over the weekend.

She has noticed that during the first weekend, mothers bring a clean set of uniform and take home the dirty one.

“It’s as if these parents do not understand what boarding school is all about – it is supposed to teach their children to be independent,” she says.

“When parents behave like this, the result is that the child hates the school, even though they might insist that he or she remain there,” explains Stephen Wahome, a counselling psychologist and CEO of Psychological Health in Nairobi.

“Such children see the school as a harsh environment and consider their parents cruel. As a result, some rebel and run away from school or engage in antisocial habits such as drug abuse,” he adds.

Another difference that is likely to make like difficult for those coming from private schools is the mode of teaching. In most private schools, the classes are much smaller than those in public schools, so teachers are able give students individualised attention.

This poses a problem because in public secondary schools, the large numbers mean that teachers cannot pay much individual attention to students. And students meet up to 15 different teachers in a week over 40-minute periods, notes Ngwiri.

She adds that a class of 30 students in a private school allows for special attention, but in public secondary schools, where classes sometimes have up to 50 students, it is a challenge for teachers to get to know the students well.

Survival

“So a student who is joining a public school for the first time will have to learn to survive by taking his or her own notes and studying on their own,” she explains.

She adds that first-time boarders usually find it easier to adjust because everything is new to them while those who were boarders in primary school find it hard to settle down because they keep comparing the facilities at their new school with those in their previous school.

Also joining Form One are those who went to boarding school at a very young age (say from Standard Three or Four), who have had enough of boarding life and want to be day students for a change. Such students are likely to reject boarding school, even if their parents want them to attend one.

“This fuels rebellion in the child, and it is at this point that the parents realise that they are practically strangers,” explains Wahome.

Of course, one cannot discuss boarding school without mentioning diet, which has been known to cause riots in schools. Many students from private primary school are likely to resent the food in public secondary schools, which tends to consist of the very basic necessities.

Although the menu depends on which part of the country the school is located, it mainly tends to be githeri and ugali with vegetables and, sometimes, meat.

Given these challenges, some schools have started orientation programmes for Form Ones in order to help them adjust.

“We start by sharing our expectations so that we can counteract theirs,” explains Ngwiri, who heads the guidance and counselling department at Kiambu High School.

The school is one of the few in the country that have started an orientation programme for new students to help them adjust. It also has a programme for new parents to help them understand how the school functions.

She notes, however, that even this has its own challenges, since most parents want their children to join good public schools “but once their children get admitted and realise things are not being done the way they believe they should, they want to introduce changes that are likely to compromise a school’s laid-down disciplinary code.”

Citing the case of school visits, she notes that while most schools have clearly spelt out the times at which parents may visit their children, some want to visit beyond the allocated time and when the child is sent home as a consequence, the parents feel offended.