The increased number of suicide cases is alarming.
The loss of students over school related issues indicate that something has gone terribly wrong. A lot has been said and written on the need to guide pupils on examination issues.
We have equally had a number of suicide cases not related to exams.
The cases involved students at Alliance Girls, St Clare’s Maragoli Girls in Vihiga County, and Nyamagwa SDA Secondary School in Kisii. Reports show that the students were going through serious problems before ending their lives.
For instance, the Alliance Girls student left a suicide note indicating she had no friends in school and at home. It is heart-wrenching that a student in a social community such as a school would feel isolated, neglected and unloved.
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It is equally disturbing that her teachers were too busy to realise that she was undergoing serious social-emotional problems.
Guidance and counselling departments in schools should be strengthened to ensure that students going through trauma are counselled. But again, we know that most of these departments – if they exist at all – are managed by inexperienced staff.
The Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission should facilitate the operationalisation of effective guidance and counselling units.
Mugo wa Kihiu, Thika
The recently reported cases of suicide by candidates who sat KCPE last year are yet a clear indicator that the education system requires restructuring.
No life should be lost just because the dictates of society have deemed a pupil’s performance in an exam as being below par, making them to see suicide as the only way out. The system has conditioned students to rote learning instead of the more comprehensive learning process that involves students acquiring lifelong skills for the job market.
Education experts must re-think the education model in Kenya to make it a more inclusive learning process.
Pamella Akoth, Kisumu
The revelation that more than 250,000 candidates who sat the exam will miss out on high school education leaves a lot to be desired about our education system. Curriculum developers need to come up with innovative ways to address these perennial crisis.
David Simiyu, Kakamega