INCITMENT OF STUDENTS BY PARENTS

By EMMANUEL BOAZ

The Waa high school board chairman Mr Mohammed Mwakweli accused the form four parents of inciting their children. About 80 Parents of the Waa high school were forced to go back home with their children that had strikedafter the interrogative talks between the parent teacher and the student, they were supposed to have with the school board refused to bear fruits. The parents were very bitter saying that they wanted a collective discussion of all the parents together with their children since they have stayed at home for three weeks now and they are losing a lot as far as education is concerned since they are form four students. “These are cases and cases can not to be done in the open we have to interrogate these children and the parents to hear out the problems. We are not the first school to do interrogation in Kwale county around 11 schools which have strikes have practiced interrogation policy,” Said the Board chairman. Among the parents grievances was the school imposing an additional amount of Sh 3,500 on the school fee in order to cater for buying a generator. Mr Mwinyi Mohammed a parent said that the performance of the school has been depreciating due to the board serving for a long time in the secondary school. “Mwafungo has stayed in the school for such a long time and he is accustomed to the board and the P.T.A and takes the school like it belongs to him. We all want the P.T.A and the board to be dissolved. We also want the head master to be sent away and another head teacher brought in.” added Mr Mohammed. On the 14th of July there was a meeting with parents and they agreed unanimously to buy a generator because of frequent blackouts in the region. “The 80 form four students on the 19th July walked out of school at around 2:00 am to the provincial education officer and that was before the start of the mock exams leaving behind 35 students behind. The P.D answered by saying that they do not solve problems of account the problem is to be solved by the board,” Said the board Chairman. “The generator issue was passed by the parents through the P.T.A chairman Mr Raymond Nyamawi. We as the committee think that what caused the students unrest was because of exams,the school was under tension on the 19th of July and they further disrupted classes for other students by throwing stones before we decided to take them home.” The students were expected to report back to school on the 25thJuly to talk about the issue but it was postponed to the 3rd of august because part of the teachers and the school head teacher had gone for the district games. Our aim was to solve the problem today so that all the children so as to decide whether the students are to commence their tuition or not. “The coast province is poor when it comes to education matters there is lack of communication between the teachers and the students, these are teenagers growing up and need cancelling sessions and recreation activities. These are adults and need not to be forced into anything but the teachers should instead reason with them,” Mrs Faith Mgaza lamented. “We do not say that our children are always right but there are things that need to be rectified so as to improve the education standards in the coast.” Mrs Mgaza added. Cases of incitement of students by parents and throwing blames was spoken against by the board chairman “We have discovered that we have incitements from parents. Kwale county and any other county within coast province will not prosper in education if the parents will not dedicate to work with the school administration,” said Mr Mwakweli “The board chairman called for proper understanding between the he parents and the administration in order to achieve good performance,” he added. Mr Mwakali said that the 80 students did not sit for their mock examination and the decision of them coming back to the school remains with the board. However, the form four students are to accompany their parents back to the school on the 15th of August as the K.C.S.E exams commence in October.