By LILLIAN ONYANGO laonyango@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, January 7 2012 at 15:26
Posted Saturday, January 7 2012 at 15:26
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has condemned attacks on teachers over the Kenya Certificate Primary Education results.
He said teachers should be treated with dignity and that other parties in the education sector including the Teachers Service Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the students themselves also have a role to play.
“Reports of parents descending on schools and attacking teachers in front of pupils are very disturbing indeed,” Mr Odinga said.
“These actions point to a society flirting with the law of the jungle in place of the rule of law.”
He added that the action taken by such parents point to a society “that is busy imparting the wrong values to those that it wants to bequeath the future".
Last week, a school head teacher was badly injured and another was dragged out of his office and warned never to set foot in school.
Elsewhere, six others were locked out of their offices by angry parents as the new school term started.
While in a number of schools across the country, head teachers went into hiding, fearing attacks from parents after their schools performed poorly, raising serious questions about the safety of teachers and school administrators.
On Wednesday, Kalyet Primary School head teacher Geoffrey Kiplang’at Sigei took his life after the school’s results were cancelledby the Kenya National Examinations Council over irregularities.
In a statement, Mr Odinga appealed to parents to exercise restraint “no matter what the KCPE results looked like in their schools".
“Parents should treat the teachers with the respect they deserve and as the professionals on whose hands the future of this nation lies," said the PM, who is in India.
The PM said that while he understood parent’s desire to have their children do well in school, they should consider that teachers share in the same hope.
“I appeal to aggrieved parents to use appropriate channels to air their grievances. As parents, we must send the right signals to our children in regard to respect for institutions, professionals and rule of law,” he said.
Mr Odinga warned that children run a risk of picking up such acts of violence from their parents.
He said: “The kind of attacks being witnessed could only lead to further deterioration of discipline among school children and lack of respect for teachers. These scenarios will only lead to worse results.”
The PM appealed to parents to use appropriate channels to air their grievances. That way, he said, they would send the right signals to our children in regard to respect for institutions, professionals and rule of law.
“We make a terrible mistake when we pass the message to the children that might is right and that their teachers are that vulnerable to us the parents,” he said.
Mr Odinga advised parents to pave way for consultations between Boards of Governors, PTA’s, KNUT, TSC and the Ministry of Education on the performance.
“I fear the trend witnessed so far is a bad lesson to the children and our society may pay dearly for it in future.”
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