Do principals benefit from their annual conferences?

The principals’ conference had just ended in Mombasa when we started hearing of boarding schools getting burnt by students. When the principals met in Mombasa this year, most of their deliberations centered on code of conduct for teachers, examination irregularities, the best teacher and principal of the year etc.

They conducted all their deliberations in one hall of wild waters and they all listened to one presenter unlike in other conferences where there are many themes presented by different presenters in different rooms. Can 10,000 people engage in a conference and benefit in anything?

Can that change next year so that at the end of the five days the principals should come from Mombasa with lessons on indiscipline in schools taught by different individuals, mentor-ship, signs of drug abuse in schools, insecurity in schools,  how to counsel students, entertainment for students, social media platforms, empowering students cabinet, conflict resolution etc.

 But the elephant in the room is why Mombasa has been a venue year in year out, is it because of its strategic place of fresh air, distance, beaches, shopping centers etc. What do the principal gain out of this conference, if there has been an increase in exam irregularities, indiscipline in schools etc.?

Let this conference be a tool to educate, inform and to network ideas on how to manage secondary schools and issues affecting their students. They should not mind about their business only. Teaching should be their core business.

 Principals should know that students have mastered modern ways of tricking them unlike old time. Also social media plays a part in most of their activities. Look at the way a principal is stoned by his own students who is pld enough to be their own father. Look at the ones who touched their 7 dormitories because of football, what about those who touched their dormitories because of not being given meat? Why is this burning affecting mostly boy’s schools? What is their obsession with fire?

Look at the cases of students hiring matatus during closing of schools to engage in mischievous acts, drug abuses, riots, constant strikes, burning dormitories. Do these students copy our acts? All petrol stations should be on alert on anyone buying petrol without having a vehicle. Some attendants are corrupt. Let the whole country assist by giving advice to the youth anywhere you find them. Don’t say your children are young.One day they will be in high school, wouldn't you like them to be good students?