Society has failed our children

• Students should be involved in the process of finding a solution to wave of student unrest.
• Society has become too materialistic, with parenting duties ignored as people strive to accumulate wealth.

• We need leaders who will de-emphasise materialism and rally people back to the family.

Asked whether he had involved all stakeholders in searching for a solution to the current school unrest, Education minister Sam Ongeri last week said he had met representatives of Knut, the TSC and headteachers.

However, those are not the only stakeholders. Until we get a way of gleaning the input of students themselves, we cannot zero-in on the root causes of the unrest or the solution.

Considering the events of the last two weeks in secondary schools, it is scaring to sit back and envision the future of our country with our children at the helm. But there would be no cause for alarm if we set about addressing the issue at hand without prejudice.

Not all children are bad, just a few. And even some of those few behave the way they do in response to bad parenting, the irresponsibility of teachers and the policies of leaders.

Secondary school students are young men and women and not all they say is senseless or motivated by selfishness. Unlike primary school children, living with them requires more of mentoring rather than the use of the cane.

Minister Ongeri’s appeal to parents to be more involved in their children’s lives, which was echoed by the Head of State, deserves emphasising.

Just about all sociologists who have contributed to the debate on the strikes agree on one thing: our society has become too materialistic, and as people work to accumulate wealth, they have tended to ignore their parenting duties.

We have heard of some able parents who, seeking to have more time in their jobs and businesses, consign children as young as five to boarding schools. Such children feel they are being expelled from home and hence grow bitter.

But even parents whose children operate from home are sometimes no better. Many set aside little or no time for their children, leaving them to learn how to manage life from the househelp and television.

But even teachers are not blameless. To some teachers, private business has taken centre-stage as their jobs are relegated to the background. Such teachers miss class often, as a result of which students do not finish the syllabus and have to face examinations ill-prepared.

And now comes the part that the Government ought to play. First, we need leaders who will de-emphasise materialism and rally people back to the family, the building block of society. Kenya may be on the run but we must make sure we are not running backwards.

Then there is need to ensure that children do not access drugs. It is clear substances are being abused in schools.

How else does one explain the behaviour of children who are so callous as to express anger by burning their colleagues?

Mr Macharia is a Nairobi-based businessman.