A study of attitudes of Headteachers towards corporal punishment as a disciplinary method in public secondary schools in Nairobi province

Abstract

Teachers, to a large extent have assumed the role of parents. This is because teachers spend a greater part of their day with the children as compared to the time children spend with their parent during their school going age. The issue of discipline in most cases has been left to the teachers. Many secondary school headteachers have handled matters related to student discipline in various ways. Corporal punishment has been used as a method of discipline in various schools until the withdrawal by the Ministry of Education last year (2001). The purpose of this study was to examine the attitude of the headteachers in the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method in public secondary schools in Nairobi province. The study also sought to determine the kind of discipline problems experienced in public secondary schools in Nairobi province, the discipline problems which were being handled by using corporal punishment. The study also sought to find out whether those headteachers who were caned when they were students have a different attitude towards the use of corporal punishment compared to those who were never caned. The study further sought the headteachers' attitude towards the effectiveness of corporal punishment. Lastly it sought to study whether corporal punishment should be reinstated. The literature review in this study was organised under the following sub-headings: the concept of attitude, general overview of discipline in schools, headteachers and discipline in schools, nature of indiscipline in schools, the causes of indiscipline in schools, the positive attitude towards the use of corporal punishment and the negative attitude towards the use of corporal punishment From the literature review, an integrated approach to discipline and conceptual framework were designed. The study was ex-post facto in design and the, targeted population consisted of headteachers in public secondary schools in Nairobi Province. In this study, one set of questionnaires was developed by the researcher as the research instrument. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part one consisted of nine (9) short questions on school and demographic variables. Part two of the questionnaire consisted of two sections A and B. The questions on part Bwere open ended. The supervisor validated the research instrument. All public secondary school of Nairobi province were used.. Five of them were used for piloting while the rest were used for the study. All headteachers were given questionnaires to complete. The sample consisted of 45 headteachers of which 37 completed and returned their questionnaires. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses The following are the findings of the research study: 1. All public secondary schools in Nairobi Province experienced discipline problems among students with the most frequency occurring being noisemaking in class and theft cases. 2. Corporal punishment was commonly used in solving discipline problems such as noise making and late coming to school. 3. There are very few headteachers with special training in guidance and counselling other than child psychology that they learnt during their training to be teachers. 4. No significant relationship existed between the age of the headteacher and their attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. 5. No significant relationship existed between the gender of the headteachers and the headteachers' attitude towards the use of corporal ~unishment as a disciplinary method. 6 No significant relationship existed between the headteachers' professional grade and the headteachers' attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. 7. No significant relationship existed between the administrative experience of the headteachers and the headteachers' attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. 8. No significant relationship existed between the headteachers' special training in guidance and counselling and the headteachers attitude towards corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. 9. No significant relationship existed between the kind of discipline problems experienced in secondary schools and the headteachers' attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. The recommendations of the study are as follows: 1. The headteachers be encouraged to use alternative methods of behaviour modification such as dialogue with students. 2. More headteachers be trained in Guidance and Counselling. 3. Disciplinary committees be set up in all schools by the Teachers Service Commission to help in controlling indiscipline in schools. 4. Corporal punishment is not popular and therefore should not be reinstated. The following research areas are suggested for further research: 1. Replication of this study using an interview schedule as the research instrument with headteachers. 2. A comparative study on the attitudes of the head teaches on the use of corporal 'punishment in public secondary schools in rural and urban set-ups 3. A study of the effects of the withdrawal of corporal punishment in public secondary schools in rural schools