The Government has turned the heat on head teachers as the wave of unrest continued to be witnessed in more secondary schools across the country.

Education Minister Prof George Saitoti warned yesterday that head teachers found to have done little to avert violence in their schools risked the sack.

"We are going to carry out a comprehensive evaluation on the performance of the head teachers. We don't want head teachers to panic. But where we find glaring weaknesses, we will certainly take action immediately against those involved to demonstrate our seriousness in dealing with the problem," he said.

The tough-talking Saitoti further called on parents to report errant principals to district education officers or directly to the ministry headquarters.

The looming purge on the heads of institutions is part of the measures the Government has drawn in order to curb the spate of unrest in secondary schools witnessed recently.

They include building more day schools in future, instead of the violent-prone boarding ones.

"Since most of the schools currently experiencing unrest are boarding, communities will be encouraged to put up more day schools. However, the current boarding schools will be required to meet prescribed standards and should be made more teacher and learner-friendly," said Saitoti.

Violent incidents have been reported in more than 20 schools within the last two months. Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed in each case.

The worst incident was at Mbiuni Mixed School in Machakos District, where a student was killed on Monday.

The district also leads in the number of schools closed due to riots, 11 of them by the start of this week.

Also hit by unrest were Njabini, Kianyaga and Ngoru secondary schools in Central Province.

Similar incidents have been reported at Tala, Makueni and Thomeandu Boys secondary schools in Eastern Province.

Others affected were Nyanza's Sinyolo Girls, Gendia High, Muhoroni Mixed, Nyakeiri and Marani (Nyanza), Longisa High (Rift Valley) and Nyang'ori Boys (Western).

Poor management has been cited as a leading cause of violence in schools.

Yesterday, Saitoti announced wide-ranging measures aimed at improving the quality of management.

"In the past identification, appointment, deployment and management of institutional managers and field officers suffered from external influences. This trend should stop in order to allow professionalism to take place on the basis of agreed guidelines and with the legal framework," he said.

The minister denied that mock examinations and the ban on corporal punishment in schools were to blame for the rise of unrest and indiscipline among students.

The modern way, he said, was to counsel them.

Meanwhile, a team of senior education officials has been dispatched to Nakuru to investigate mass child pregnancies in five primary schools.

The team, comprising the Inspector of Schools, the Head of Primary Education and the Rift Valley Provincial Director of Education, visited the schools yesterday. Saitoti said the officials were expected to find out the cause of the incidents and submit a report to his office.

And 45 students from Mwambunu Secondary school in Taita-Taveta district yesterday morning stormed out of class protesting against failure by some teachers to teach them for two weeks.

The Form Three students walked for 15 kilometres to the Taita-Taveta district education office in Wundanyi to register their grievances.

The District Education Officer (DEO), Mr David Ole Sadera, advised them to return to school while their grievance was being addressed.

Meanwhile, three more schools in Central Province were on Wednesday rocked by student disturbances as the wave of unrest continued to dog learning institutions in the area.

This brings to five, the number of secondary schools where normal learning has been disrupted by rioting students over various grievances.

Nyakahura Secondary School in Murang'a was closed indefinitely after about 150 students declined to go class demanding to be addressed by the DEO.

Still in Murang'a district, about 40 Form Four students from Kiambugi Secondary School went on strike demanding that their 11 am tea be accompanied with slices of bread.

The students destroyed several window panes and fluorescent tubes, causing the Principal to call in police.

	Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).