Teachers demand students to undergo mandatory drug test as schools reopen

Students will face more punitive measures if a draft of laws being proposed by headteachers are adopted before schools reopen on April 25.

During their annual conference, headteachers in Mombasa have proposed laws that will punish indiscipline students while their parents spend a million paying for damages caused during unrests.

The law is seeking to punish individual students found responsible for organising strikes doing away with blanket punishments of students.

“In my view, we shouldn’t punish everybody because some of the children are innocent; the plan might have been hatched by a few people.

If this is the case, when we charge everybody, we punish the children and their parents,” Kenya Secondary Heads Association (KSSHA) chair Indimuli Kahi opined.

The school heads also proposed to introduce mandatory drug tests in schools.

According to headteachers, this proposal which has been shelved several times seeks to address rising cases of drug and substance use among students, which has been identified as one of the causes of unrest in learning institutions.

“There would be a need for rules to be enacted that would give a correct legal way of doing the testing so that we parents and schools can get informed of any instances of drug abuse among students.

The drug test is expected to be done in the presence of the students, parents and teachers to ensure no complaints are recorded if an individual fails the drug test.

Further, the teachers are proposing a law review to reintroduce corporal punishment in schools.

On abolishing boarding schools, Kahi insisted that it would not offer the solution to the perennial cases of unrest.

Admission of Form One students is set to begin on May 3, with the rest of the students and learners going back to class from Monday next week for a new academic year.