Abstract:
In recent years, secondary schools have experienced an increased rate of indiscipline.
Indiscipline cases have taken many forms such as mass student walk out, destruction of
property, beating of teachers and in extreme cases burning to death of fellow students. The
purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of indiscipline in secondary schools with
special reference to Ol-Kalou Division in Nyandarua District in Kenya There are 28
secondary schools, 270 teachers and 3,103 students. Ex~post facto research approach using
causal comparative design was employed for this study. Pilot study was conducted in O1-Jor-
orok division involving 15 respondents which consisted of four teachers and 11 students.
Stratified sampling was used to select seven secondary schools. Simple random sampling was
used to select five teachers from each of the seven sampled secondary schools. 12 students
were sampled from each school using stratified sampling to cater for the different levels. A
total of 115 subjects were involved consisting of 33 teachers and 82 students. Questionnaires
for teachers and students were the main instruments of data collection. The instruments were
validated through a pilot study and a panel of experts. The reliability of instruments was
calculated using 0.716 of Cronbach’s coefficient alpha Questionnaires for teachers and
students were the main instruments of data collection. Data was analyred by use of SPSS
(Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and percentages, means and frequencies were
generated. The findings irflicated that school adntinistratigijs a major Tactor in indiscipline
of students. Lack of guidance and counselling skills and inadequate guidance and cotmselling
loads heavily on the needs of students. The results further indicated that lack of students’
involvement in issues such as selection of prefects and school niles had negative impact on
school discipline among others. It was consequently recommended that school administration
to uphold open channels of communication between teachers, students and parents at large.
There is need to increase the students’ involvement in selection of prefects and in making of
school rules for better understanding. lt was also recommended that the feeding prograrnrnes
should be improved in schools while the parents are required to be more effective in the
discipline of the children. It is hoped that the result of this study may help to alleviate
indiscipline in secondary schools.
