Brexit syndrome: Why student unrest has become so rampant

When Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi visited Itierio Boys Secondary School, where students burnt down seven dormitories after they were denied permission to watch a Euro 2016 match on Saturday, he came out brandishing a big stick.

The Education CS decided to spread the heat. His official response to the recent cases of students burning their dormitories was to pass the cost of repair to their parents. He made it plainly clear that government resources would not be used on repairing schools destroyed by students. In other words, let the parents take care of the mess they created.

Official reports state 20 schools have experienced violent student unrest in this half year alone. Tens of parents must be wondering what ill will befell their children. It is especially hard for parents of average kids who succumb easily to peer influence. Student hooliganism in school and university campuses has rippling consequences on parents who are made to pay for a crime they did not commit.

The Ministry of Education punishes them for having thugs for children. Society castigates them for not teaching their children not to foolishly react in anger. While everyone seems to wonder why they cannot spend time with their dumb kids and teach them better.

School authorities rarely shoulder the blame for creating the ground for violent riots even where there is a clear line between highhandedness of principals and violent demonstrations.

When students feel like they are not getting heard, they find a way to announce their presence and nothing quite gets a point across like a bonfire. The condemnation thereafter will have the very same students wishing they had just sucked it up and saved the hurt for another day. Either way you look at it. The students are the greatest losers in this scenario. They will be expelled from school and condemned at home for wasting a struggling parents’ hard earned cash. The affected student will be blacklisted at school and at home.

Parent-child bonding

Unless they have influential liberal parents with enough cash to persuade new principals to grant them a second chance, getting a good school will be impossible. They will sense reject everywhere they turn until they finally find solace and acceptance in a gang of social misfits who revel in breaking the rules. The sensible parent would dump the expelled child in the next available school out a sense of duty. To allow them to at least finish form four before they can released to the world for a reality check and some hard knocks.

They will be no luxury to wallow in the regret of missed parent-child bonding opportunities. Average children are supposed to get it. Especially when they emerge from a simple rural setting where a good education is a necessity many cannot afford. When you are hard up and cash strapped, relying on the salaried job that hangs on a balance every other month, you pray for smart kids. Not just book smart, but kids who have a sense of appreciation for your sacrifice and a belief in your struggles on their behalf. Children who do not take privilege for granted and realise that in the scope of frustrations out there, school grievances are a fart in the wind.

A child who returns home with news of expulsion crushes the resolve of the typical parent. Where did they go wrong? Who bewitched the child? Which side of the family is to blame this case of stupidity? Strict corporal punishment does not always yield the desired results. Beyond the strokes of correction that would allow the prodigal son to return to sanity, children especially boys could slip down the slippery slow of delinquency and never find their way back.

Far reaching consequences

That is the fate that awaits hundreds of parents of boys and girls in high school who succumbed to peer pressure or what is now known as the Brexit syndrome. The Brexit syndrome occurs when a person succumbs to the mood of the mob, riding high on emotion and ignorance and participates in the making of a stupid decision with such far reaching consequences that only come to light after the deed it done. The kind of decisions that cannot be undone and the selfish pursuits of a few individuals end up visiting penalties on hundreds of innocents.

The culture of institutionalised impunity is the elephant in the room, as far as the recurring incidents of high school unrest is concerned. The students are following the examples of their national leaders. In this country, notoriety is a status symbol. Doing bad is what gets you noticed and the consequences can always be dealt with later. Bad boys are the role models and the hustle has become the illusionary shortcut to prosperity and reclaimed respect.