Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha on Wednesday blamed parents for the increased cases of learners attacking teachers in schools across the country.
Prof Magoha accused parents of not giving their children tough love, instead handling them like eggs during the nine months they were away from school due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For nine months a child has been at home and you’ve been treating him like an egg and you expect the Principal to instill in him discipline, what do you think will happen?” he posed.
Speaking at Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School in Kariobangi, Nairobi, he similarly directed teachers in all schools to confiscate all hand sanitisers in small bottles in the hands of learners.
The Education CS revealed that some learners were using sanitisers to ignite fires in schools and ordered law enforcers to take drastic action against those found culpable.
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“I want to tell teachers that they must not allow small bottle sanitisers into schools. If any child has portable sanitiser it should be taken and kept and given when the child is leaving school,” he directed.
This comes amid increased cases of learners targeting teachers since learning resumed after a 9-month bread due to Coronavirus restrictions in Kenya effected since March 13, 2020.
Just last Sunday, an 18-year-old Form Three student at Nyang’ori Boys secondary school in Vihiga county was arrested for killing a school guard who intervened as he attacked colleagues.
Days before that, an 18-year-old Form Two student from Kitutu Masaba in Nyamira County was apprehended for allegedly plotting an attack on a deputy principal with a machete.
This was a day after yet another student, a 17-year-old, was arrested for stabbing and seriously wounding two Kisii High School teachers who ordered him to kneel down for being late to class.
Similarly, police on Monday nabbed a 14-year-old Grade 4 pupil and her Form 4 student boyfriend at Kegati, Kisii County after she tried to poison her father using porridge on Sunday for questioning their relationship.