So yesterday I saw an interesting story in the news. Apparently three girls in a school in Nyamira were recovering in the local hospital after attempting suicide by drinking some acid. Reason: they had been suspended from school for being found in possession of mobile phones and had been sent home by their teacher. May I at this juncture state that I find their action dumb. Kids nowadays are too soft.
Anyway, this sparked off a heated discussion among the group of people I was with. Many accused the girls of breaking school rules and pointed out that mobile phones are restricted in most schools. Some blamed the parents. Others like myself thought perhaps the punishment was too steep for a ‘crime’ as mundane as having a mobile phone.
My take. I think the reason why Africa lags behind in everything is our backward mentality. Shun this mentality and you will make it in life anywhere. I asked what was so grievous with having a mobile phone in school. Technology is moving forward and all we can think about is how to maintain doing things the old way. I asked my friends, what was the difference between those boarding girls and those who attend day school who after school have access to all manner of gadgets like phones, computers, tablets, gaming consoles, TVs and all. None. Yet many still go on to become respectable earning members of society, some even excelling in their studies much more than those in boarding schools.
The only reason why schools maintain this backward restriction is because it is ‘traditional’ to do so. Some may argue that mobile phones are a great distraction to serious study. While that may be true, many overlook the overwhelming advantages that mobile phones will have. For example, teachers become more accessible to students for purpose of study. Information such as announcements and instructions can more easily and speedily be conveyed to students. Students become more accessible to parents and vice versa. Mobile money services ensure students can easily receive their allowance. The resource that is the internet with all the information contained therein becomes accessible. Teachers can also encourage students to learn more about technology such as developing of apps.
Many of you would know that in more affluent schools, issues like these don’t come up. These are rules for the common Johns and Joans in your common average schools. In affluent schools, kids have every known gadgets. But they follow rules pertaining to their use. For example, you cannot carry your gadgets to class. You may not use the gadgets for activities such as access to pornographic sites. Another rule that would help would be having the students know that their gadgets should be availed to any teacher on demand for inspection and should have no passwords at all times. If you are to use the gadget in the right way in school you need not have any secrets to protect. Do that at home. These kids from affluent schools always end up being successful and confident in their careers/lives because of early exposure. The common Johns and Joans end up being their employees to struggle in life with their average salaries and myriads of debt.
IT IS A SHAME in todays world to talk about giving STANDARD ONE KIDS laptops while at the same time punishing HIGH SCHOOL KIDS for having a phone. It doesn’t make sense. Other examples of our backward thinking include but not limited to;
[ul]
[li]Bank hall security guards telling you not to talk on your mobile phones in the bank. Of what purpose is this rule? Business is conducted on phone nowadays.[/li][li]Police officers having to carry some useless sticks in their duty in this age of information technology. Of what use are such sticks in todays world?[/li][/ul]
This nonsense while in the developing world kids are leading in innovations in technology. Arrgh!!!
[ATTACH=full]30787[/ATTACH]
a great percentage of students have phones for flimsy reaosns. There isn’t really a pressing need to have phones in a boarding school, unless of course the student is some of those sickly people who need doctors on-call. Hizo zingine ni kazi bure tu.
Xvideos.com na moneytalks ni site poa sana na teenagers. Give your child that phone and see his/her morals go down the drain. Wangapi tumeona wakipewa mimba na makanga??? Mnunulie simu kabsaa, ata umsambazie bundles every week.
My cuzzo’s 5 year old has a tablet with a line. He calls his dad sometimes, receive calls when he is at the neighbors etc. Most of the time he is playing super hero games and knows so much shit around his tablet. Now tell me why a teen should be denied this privilege?
P. S he sneaks it to school to impress babes from what I heard. :)
Thats what im talking about. We have to change with the times and act accordingly. It would be strange to such a kid to tell him its illegal to have a phone/tab when he gets to hogh school. Someone here talks of teenagers and xvideos. I ask him, so he means to say primaru school kids and their laptops (to be) will not access xvideos?
I was looking for a sentence that says that maybe those girls would use it to call their sugar daddies that’s why the phones were taken away and girls sent home, but alas you missed to mention that. Is it a case of missing the point?
When I watched that storo kwa news, the parents were complaining that the punishment was too harsh, children of today are indeed softies.
I went to boarding school (Pango girls) and the punishment some of my classmates used to be given, these one was child play
A parent can’t talk openly with his/her teenage daughter/son about what condoms are for or even insist on their use but to seem to belong,he/she isn’t against a phone or tablet for the same teenager for she/he is grown up and everyone has it in school
Wrong prognosis. With or without phones they will still get p2 if they want to and they do get them regardless. Chemist shops are in every corner selling everything to everyone without care. You are blaming a piece of technology wrongly for social ills that eminate for totally different reasons and that have always been with us long before phones
If there’s proof that phones help students with anything in boarding school, then they should have them. Phones are just a big distraction from what took kids to school. Kwanza hapo mtu anasubscribe those nonsense 200 sms bundles na kuanza kueneza ufala. Sio mbaya kuwa nayo, but ukishakuwa nayo? Not really a priority.
They wanted to commit suicide because those phones were not from their parents but from sponsors. Proof enough that phones in school serve no purpose to a student apart from soliciting for sex
