Abstract:
During the past 20 years, there has been a growing outcry worldwide condemning the
practice of corporal punishment on school children. After the abolishment of corporal
punishment, there was a need to have alternative methods despite the use of guidance and
counseling which was proposed by the governments to manage students discipline in
Secondary Schools. The abolishment of corporal punishment without effective alternative
methods of managing discipline in schools has led to indiscipline and conflicts. The
purpose of this research was to explore alternative methods to corporal punishment used
in managing students' discipline in secondary schools. The study was guided by the
theory of Stage Theories of Behaviour Change by Prochaska and DiClemente (1986)
which emphasize that behaviour change is a process influenced by environmental factors.
The specific objectives of this study were; to find out the effects of outlawing of corporal
punishment on students' discipline; to find out alternative methods of managing students'
discipline; to identify challenges facing teachers in dealing with indiscipline in secondary
schools and to establish the role of religious education in managing students' discipline.
The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target populations were
headteachers, deputy headteachers, CRE subject head teachers and guidance and
counseling HOD in secondary schools in Bomet district. There are 53 secondary schools
in Bomet District out of which 42 are coeducational, 8 are boys' schools and 3 are girls'
school. For this only coeducational school were involved because it forms majority of the
type of school in the district. . In this study, 30% of the co-educational schools were
sampled (13 schools), however to take care of non-responsive respondents, 16 schools
were sampled. Therefore a total of 16 headteachers, 16 deputy headteachers, 16 CRE
subject heads and 16 guidance and counseling teachers translating to 64 respondents were
selected for the study. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and interview
schedules. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in data analysis.
Data was presented by use of tables. The study showed that there were a lot of negative
changes in students' discipline with the outlawing of corporal punishment in schools.
Teachers also reported that they face challenges in dealing with students discipline in
schools without corporal punishment. CRE was reported to have an important role in
managing students discipline in schools.
