High School Confessions; This is why we failed…

Punishment by caning students is allegedly prohibited in high schools. However, this only exists in records and the reality is alarming. Most of you may have attended the town schools where “we know our rights” had already been established.

 Your parents worked in the county office and thus no one could punish you for fear of losing their jobs. This doesn’t fully guarantee that such kinds of punishment displayed above didn’t exist in your school.

By the time a student joins a school, a new culture of fear for teachers is set out. The student's approach to the teachers become instantly corrupted. At no point, will they be at ease with any of them?

Each time, the student mind will always have a feeling of distancing themselves as far as possible in fear of being punished.

Do you vividly remember your high school moments? Those times when you’d literally run away from a teacher? The only reason you’d wake in the morning was the fear of being caught by the deputy principal, not really for the main logical reason of working hard.

 It’s shocking how fear turned you to being very obedient. No noise in classes, returning early from breaks and to the unexpected activity, working hard in school, all for the same mere reason of fear.

Well, this might explain why students failed in the recently released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

Students neither sought assistance nor clarification from their teachers because they feared them. Who would dare confront Mr. Ndege in class?

Instead of answering your question he’d pretend to remember your name being on the noisemakers list. By the time you realize it, you have already received his average ‘five’.

If students were allowed to work smart without the fear of failure and the fear instilled by their teachers and parents, we may have recorded a better performance last year.

There should a distinction between fear and respect. What our students are experiencing now is actually fear and not respect.
The sad reality is that once they get back to their homes, the situation tends to worsen.

Remember the Bible verse in Ephesians that says children should obey their parents. You’d probably not find any moment the Bible says we fear our parents.

 The only moment fear is used is only when the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, meaning that we only God deserves to be feared.

There is a need for the society to change its perspective on the issue and have teachers who are more friendly and welcoming.

Teachers who are more caring than parents. Teachers who portray such an encouraging role model figure that propels the students to achieving the best, giving them a reason to work hard. Teachers who deserve respect rather than fear.

The same situation on the parent’s side, all parents should stop instilling fear in their children but rather a sense of respect.

 You’ll agree with me that the current generation would rather share their fears and challenges to their pastors or even mentors and not their parents.

This shouldn’t be the case though since parents are the most valuable and most comforting when it comes to such moments.
As I rest my case, am sure you have a new perspective as to why students failed in their KCSE exams.