On Caning Pupils, Matiangi Takes A Firm Stand And Fuels A Dispute

Education CS Fred Matiangi.

It turns out that the government has no plans of restoring corporal punishment in schools. Those teachers who may have resumed caning in their schools as part of the efforts of instilling discipline in learners may just have to stop it immediately or face punishment themselves.  That was the message Education Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiangi, sent out recently during an education event in Kirinyaga County. 

At the prize-giving ceremony at Mutige Boys Secondary School, CS Matiangi, through a senior official in his ministry, reiterated that there was no longer room for caning pupils. First, he said that caning is outlawed by the Ministry of Education and institutions that want to remain in compliance with the ministry’s regulations must desist from caning pupils. Second, he observed that there were better alternatives to caning as a means of making sure that learns behaved well in school and the communities they come from. 

You are all responsible
Matiangi also appeared to suggest that the responsibility of disciplining children lies with both teachers and parents. Since the government banned caning of pupils in school, some players in the education sector have claimed that the level of discipline among learners has significantly declined, sparking debate about who should bear the blame for the shortage in discipline.  

Parents have long held the belief that they take children to school not only to learn what is written in books, but also have their behaviors shaped so that they can return to the society as positive role models.  But that used to be true when teachers used the cane freely to force children to behave well. Some parents even didn’t have a problem referring domestic cases of indiscipline involving a child to the school so that they could have the child punished by the teachers after they punish them at home. That practice worked for some and for other it destroyed things, so there has never been a consensus on the importance of caning in school.

Teachers avoiding problems
In the era of no-caning, teachers appear to be trying to protect their skin, lest instilling discipline in a child through the cane cost them their job and land them a term in prison, just as Matiangi recently threatened.  But with that, a vacuum of discipline among learners has been created and the greatest point of departure between teachers and parents now is who is responsible for the discipline gap.

But Matiangi’s latest comments on caning and corporal punishment seem to only fuel in the dispute.