Teachers in some Nakuru schools have now come up with new ways of punishing students that can be termed as more effective than the cane as it will stick in the student’s memory and will act as a constant reminder for the student not to engage in the same mistake.
These new methods are bound to make other students laugh at the culprit who will be so humiliated that he/ she will never repeat the offence again. On the other hand, the culprit will ensure that he/ she stays in the good books of the teacher so as not to be found in the same predicament.
Some of these methods include;
1) Sleeping in the staff room
This is mostly the punishment given to boarding school students who are found sleeping during class time. They are asked to get their thin mattresses from the dormitory and to take them to the staff room where they are asked to sleep on the floor, close to the door, with the door wide open. This is a sight that makes the other students break into laughter who will ensure that they pass close to the staffroom every now and then just to laugh at you. On the other hand, every teacher who walks in the staffroom will want to know what crime you committed to warrant that punishment.
2) Being asked to eat a whole carton of biscuits alone
This punishment mostly befalls those in boarding school that don’t allow the students to carry foodstuff from home. In case of an impromptu search and the students is found with biscuits, he/she is asked to buy a whole carton at his/her own expense after which he/she is asked to sit at the schools playing field which in most times has no trees to provide shade. He/ she is then asked to eat the biscuits alone from morning until he/ she finishes them without taking any form of liquid. This is normally an impossible task to finish for most of the culprits and so after doing this for three consecutive days, the remaining biscuits are shared among all the students in the school, leaving the culprit bitter since the whole school benefited from his/her pocket.
3) Making noise in the field alone
This is mostly the case for those who are found making noise in class and especially for those in form 4. Instead of being punished using the cane, they are asked to make noise , every person at their own space for a whole day. Those who got this punishment enjoy it at first but as time goes by, they realize that they are wasting the little time they have to revise so as to pass their KCSE exams.
4) Hair being cut off using scissors at the parade.
In this case, one may be found plaiting her hair ‘matuta’ during the night preps by a teacher who would normally peep at the window and not utter a single word. It is only during the night parade after preps that the culprit is called before the whole school after which the head teacher goes to her office to get a pair of scissors. It is then that she cuts off the culprits’ hair at the bottom and according to the number of ‘matutas’ one has. On top of the humiliation due to the roar of laughter from the students, the culprits’ hair will also remain shaggy and as a result, she will be forced to wear it short until it grows back.
5) Being asked to do the impossible
In this form of punishment, the teachers may ask the student to bring them a live mosquito or a tick considering the school has no cows. The teacher may also ask the student to write the letters of the alphabet in the smallest boxes of the graph paper till it is filled.
In cases where one was found to have stolen any item, some teachers in Nakuru may force one to wear a tag written in bold that says ‘I AM A THIEF’ for a whole month in addition to wearing a smelly bone on the neck for a week, an act that will make all the friends disappear from them until the punishment is over.