Expulsions must be well-thought about

Counsellors say sometimes all students need is counselling and patience to change, rather than being expelled. Photo by Alex Esagala

What you need to know:

  • Cases of students returning to schools to seek revenge after being expelled from school are on the rise. Is it because schools do not observe due processes when effecting this punishment? George Katongole finds out.

Television newscasts last week treated their viewers to distressing scenes. Eleven incinerated bodies of students being carried in black polythene bags after brutally being killed in an inferno was a horrifying sight. The ashes and smoke at the scene filled viewers with sadness. The aftermath of the inferno at St Bernard’s Secondary School in Kifamba Sub-county, Rakai District was first suspected to have been a revenge move by students earlier expelled from school, although police is still investigating the issue.

Only in 2016, a dormitory at Mbarara High School was burned down and word was that suspended students were behind the evil act. There are several cases of revenge moves by expelled students in a bid to get back at the school administrations. The incidents, if true, are a reminder of how far students can go in opposing a school decision.

Suspension and expulsion are widely used as punishment in Ugandan schools to respond to problematic behaviour. Students most affected are usually those caught involved in drug abuse, strikes, early pregnancies, absenteeism, assault, bullying, forms of theft, and disrespecting teachers.

Not the best strategy
Suspension is usually for a short period, while expulsion is a permanent arrangement which decrees that the student cannot attend the school anymore.
Hajara Ddembe, the commissioner Physical Education and Sports department in the Education ministry, reasons that schools must fulfill their legal responsibility of providing education.

“A decision to suspend or expel a student should be considered as the only and last option in disciplining,” she says.
James Mugerwa, whose daughter was suspended for two weeks last term, says suspension is not corrective. “She actually enjoyed the punishment because she got a chance to watch TV all the time. I think caning would have served better,” Mugerwa said.

Resident evil
According to Joseph Segawa, a history teacher at Lakeside College Luzira, the enforcement of moral values and discipline have declined with privatisation of education.

“Private schools depend entirely on the revenue generated from students’ fees. Therefore, the number of students enrolled largely determines the continuity of the school. Students are given liberty in order to attract a big number of students. It is not uncommon to find most students expelled from government schools getting admissions in private ones,” Segawa says.
To him, neglecting discipline contradicts the national educational objective of promoting moral and ethical values as outlined in the Government White Paper on Education Policy Review (1992).

Paradox
Government, in an August 7, 2006 circular banned corporal punishment.
Dr John Mbabazi, the then director of education wrote: “Corporal punishments for students in schools and colleges must stop. This applies to any other form of punishment or act that may cause injury, damage, defilement or disfigurement to the human body.”
This ban leaves schools short of punitive measures to administer to errant students with suspension, expulsion, public shaming and counselling, remaining the options.

Sam Mukasa, a teacher and vice chairman of Buddo Secondary School disciplinary committee, noted that expulsion is unavoidable because many schools were not equipped with the resources, expertise and assistance to provide support to errant students.
“Internal punishments leave the parent out and yet when a child is suspended, the parent is involved in the correction process. It would be ideal that schools have professional counsellors but that is not manageable. They have to turn to teachers, some of whom are inexperienced,” he notes.

He adds that the world is full of rules and regulations and for schools to shape responsible citizens with productive adult life, punishments must be applied.
But suspensions and expulsions raise serious ethical questions about how the school system accommodates every student. Universal education allows for every child to be in school. Besides, some conditions attached to a child’s return to school end up punishing parents.
For instance, the school rules and regulations of Seroma Christian High School, require a student to return with a roll of barbed wire, after a three-week suspension on charges of escaping from the school.

What can be done?
Children with behavioural needs may need to receive more intensive, specialist intervention, focused on developing appropriate communication, social skills and emotional regulation.
Richard Balikoowa, a psychologist at Makerere University, stresses that understanding the environment is crucial to understanding children’s behaviour.
While appearing on NTV Akawungeezi last Monday, he said: “The solution is not to react to the problem but the cause. Teachers can be helped to gather and record data about when and where problematic behaviour occurs.

This can then be used to gauge what may be driving the behaviour,” he said. He explained that some students simply want attention because the academic work set by the teacher is too difficult and their disruptive behaviour is a call for help.
“Annoying the teacher, and being suspended from class, allows such a student to escape from classwork yet some behave that way because they are being haunted by some bad situations in their homes.”
Balikoowa argues that such information can enable teachers help the student learn to moderate their behaviour through teaching them to cope.

Right procedure
Uganda’s society is adopting litigation so quickly. Court cases of children suspended from school are increasing. Sylvia Nakitto sued St Lawrence Citizens High School (Creamland campus Nabbingo) in 2017 challenging her indefinite suspension. Court re-admitted her in school. Nakitto had been found smelling alcohol during a school dance at night.
The school head teacher, Angella Nakimuli, convinced court that Nakitto was very undisciplined and rebellious and had been deemed unfit to interact with the other students.

Judge Masalu Musene ruled that his decision was not whether or not the decision to suspend Nakitto was right or wrong. “The concern of this court is whether proper process and procedure was followed leading to the indefinite suspension,” he ruled.
“That is indeed the correct position of the law, which is in accordance with the principles of natural justice,” Dennis Nyombi, an advocate in Mukono, said. This precedent set puts the powers of the school disciplinary committees under spotlight.

Most causes of suspensions

To Sam, a teacher at Buddo SS, the student’s behaviour must meet one or more of the following conditions:
• Behaves in a way that poses a danger to safety or wellbeing of any person at school
• Causes significant damage to or destruction of school property
• Involved in the theft of property
• Deliberately cheats school exams
• Escapes from school
• Consistently engages in bullying

Suspension process
According to Abdallah Nakalya Nsubuga, a teacher at Kibuli SS, suspension is desirable.
The school disciplinary committee conducts independent investigations with the affected student writing statements usually attached with an apology. This process usually takes up to a week.
“Even when you are going to expel the child, you need to buy time because sometimes such students’ tempers are flaring and need to cool down,” he states.