Stakeholders' perspective on disciplinary problems in Kenya's Secondary Schools.

Abstract

Students exhibit negative behaviour in schools because they lack the social skills necessary to use in order to meet their basic needs. The skills that are necessary to interact in a constructive and cooperative manner may not have been developed in students for various reasons. For example, changes in the traditional family structure have reduced children’s exposure to parents who model societal moral values. In most cases, especially in the urban set up, both parents work, and have limited time to interact with their children. In other cases, children have limited exposure to positive adult models in the society who are trained in resolving conflicts. In addition, changes in popular modern culture expose children to negative models of conflict resolution. For instance, popular movies and television shows often portray violence as a glamorous and effective way to solve grievances and disputes. All these limited constructive social skills among the youth have become a major concern for parents, educators, government, and society. This study recommends that it is necessary to improve students’ interactive skills by training them in positive behaviour so that they can become responsible citizens. In this way, teachers will spend less time dealing with disciplinary problems, and hence leave more time to assist students with academic pursuits.