What we accepted as normal high school life isn’t acceptable now

I remember what it was like to be in high school. For the most part, it was a trial.

Of course, there were some wonderful parts. I loved being in Chapel with people who were of my faith. And even with people who weren’t, it was a unique opportunity to exchange understanding, ideas and knowledge about what made each of our faiths special.

The worship services when I was in high school were like no other.

High school gave me lifelong friends; bonds that were forged through mutual hardship and finding people who went forward, through that hardship the way I did.

There are people from high school I will never forget, even if we may or may not keep in touch. They left an indelible mark. High school left an indelible mark.

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But what also left a mark was the hardship I was talking about. There are many small, and some not so small, persecutions that high school forces you to go through, which get worse the further away, more often than not, you are from a city centre.

Of course, there is the trauma of being away from your parents, your family, your support system, your familiar structure. But on top of that, depending on the school you went to, there’s more.

Sometimes it’s religious persecution – let’s not get started on that – or what a teenager might perceive as physical persecution – I know I certainly did – which may go to the extremes of bullying, and in some cases, death.

We probably all know a story about a teenager who died at the beginning of their life in high school.

LETTING IT CONTINUE

A lot of this was brought on by the administration – especially if the administration did not have a place where students could air their grievances, or pretended to be listening and then still did nothing at all.

When I see the number of schools that have been burnt by students since the beginning of the year, I wonder at the cause, because I remember being in high school, and I wonder what gross offence could cause me to want to torch my school and put the education of my fellow students and I in jeopardy for several months, so close to mocks season, and even more worryingly, to KCSE.

It’s more than just bad food, or being beaten, or, as a tabloid implied a few weeks ago, coming from a single-parent home. Bad food is something that comes with high school. It is a fact we all, unfortunately, accept.

And corporal punishment doesn’t work, to be honest. I am sure that more than half the kids who started or encouraged these fires have been beaten within an inch of their lives by their parents, as in most African homes. How unhappy do you have to be to risk that?

Maybe it is a conspiracy. Have a bunch of students - maybe not even the majority - in different schools gotten together and decided that they’ve had enough? Enough of what exactly?

Or perhaps, even more scary, are these high school students just rebelling against the system?

Whatever it is, I don’t think Education CS Fred Matiang’i, or we, are going about it the right way. Banning visiting days and social activities in third term was not the way to go. Those are the days that see a high school student through to the end of term - a loose “funkie” here, a visit to a symposium there.

But are we asking these teenagers what is wrong, or are we just letting it continue? By the time it gets to 70 plus schools, we are letting it continue.

Last year, according to Dr Matiang’i, 98 schools were burnt down in total. This year, 70, by July. That is 10 every month or nearly three schools every week.

CONSTRAINING SYSTEMS

I wonder, also, if it is indeed that deep, inherent fear Kenyan children have of exams. Anyone who has been in Kenya for the last 10 years or so, or before that, has watched strikes happen in tertiary institutions a week before exams, so that everyone is sent home over the damage and people have more time to study.

Is that what is happening here, but just starting earlier? What is so terrible about exams, you may ask? Until you remember that the Kenyan culture of passing being valued beyond all else (dubious morals and plagiarism notwithstanding).

Rampant cheating in schools can make someone feel like there is no point in continuing if they don’t have a fair shot. So what is different, the children or the parents?

Most teachers in school have been teaching there for years. Maybe they are the ones to give us the answers here.

Something is wrong with our schools and our children. Perhaps we have kept to the draconian and constraining systems too long for this generation of children to bear it.

What we accepted as normal during our high school life is no longer acceptable, be it too many exams or classes every day, including the weekend as in my alma mater, or even that widespread practice of mixing food with kerosene to ‘reduce hormonal impulses’.

Whether it is fear of performance, or what a misguided administration may view as so-called petty grievances, or a nationwide rebellion against the powers that be, the government needs to step up and ask the pertinent questions to these students, in a safe place where they will not be punished for their honesty.

Then execute a plan that works for these children, before there are literally no schools left. Listen to your children.

Twitter: @AbigailArunga