Prime
Preventing violent strikes in schools
Yvonne Laruni
What you need to know:
- Involving students in making decisions or developing policies that directly affect them. This will help them trust the policies that they adhere to and collaborate with the school administration to ensure that they are successful.
Strikes are a common occurrence in Ugandan secondary schools. They are an expression of deep frustration around issues that have not been addressed, and most times result in violence. When school administrations are presented with students’ concerns or needs, they are sometimes too quick to dismiss or ignore them. To avoid such disruptions and incidents of violence, it is important that the school administration maintains a healthy dialogue with students even when the school is unable to address or respond to students’ requests.
When students’ needs are ignored without explanation, striking serves as a way of asserting their aims. Participating students are then labeled as ill-mannered, uncultured, or unruly. The common reaction from the school administration is then punishing students or issuing indefinite suspensions, which further silences students’ voices.
Strikes are never idle events. They are costly in terms of time, school infrastructure, and in extreme cases can cost lives. No school administrator wants to wake up to charged, angry students, yet this continues to happen in our schools, as students face the underlying cause of these strikes: a ‘feeling of powerlessness.
As students navigate the transition from childhood to adulthood, there is a natural desire to be in control of their surroundings and have their views heard. It is also a time when they are stepping into their power. But power can have two faces: the ability to do something either constructively or destructively. If students are supported to realize their power and use it constructively, collective agreements to their demands can be met and strikes can be avoided. The challenge comes when some school administrators focus on suppressing students’ power. Instead, effort should be directed towards nurturing students to develop the power within themselves and use that power with others to make positive contributions to the school.
Over many years as Raising Voices has worked with more than 1,000schools to address violence against children and adolescents, we have shared ideas on how students’ power can be nurtured to create an enabling and safe learning environment. These include.
Giving students a voice. Schools need to create opportunities for students to freely express themselves. This can include talking about their frustrations but also aspirations for their schools. Voice can be promoted through art or writing competitions, use of a suggestion box, class, and students’ meetings, among others.
Involving students in making decisions or developing policies that directly affect them. This will help them trust the policies that they adhere to and collaborate with the school administration to ensure that they are successful. When students wake up to new decisions, policies, and directives made without their involvement, their first reaction is to get angry. If this anger is not managed, it often results in such strikes. School administrators need to remain accountable and transparent to students when they are making decisions.
Allowing students space for leadership and participation. When we give students an opportunity to exercise meaningful leadership (beyond merely tokenism), we help them develop a sense of responsibility and they learn to make good judgment.
Creating a culture that does not tolerate any form of violence. Strikes are sometimes an expression of a school culture of violence. A school that is characterized by violence from teachers or school staff towards students, or between students themselves, is likely to experience strikes when students get frustrated. When violence has been normalised it becomes the language the students understand best. School administration should strive to create a culture of nonviolence through developing policies or guidelines that promote students’ safety, use of positive discipline, and promoting values that encourage dialogue.
Ultimately, when schools involve students in the formation of clear policies, values, and standards and nurture a nonviolent operational culture, students learn to emulate these positive behaviours. This will not only reduce the occurrence of striking but will help them stand in their own power and exercise their capacity to bring about change without the need for violence.
Ms Yvonne Laruni, Raising Voices.
