This study set out to establish the role of conflict Management in Maintenance of Discipline in Kenya’s Public Secondary Schools. The study formulated 6 objectives as follows: examine the nature of Conflict experienced in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya; establish how teachers and students perceive conflict in secondary schools; determine how teachers and students experience conflict in Secondary Schools; investigate the effectiveness of conflict Management Programmes used in Secondary Schools; discover suitable conflict management programmes to address present and future conflict in secondary schools; generate findings based on a theoretical approach for understanding and managing conflict in secondary schools with particular reference to schools in Kenya. The research was conducted in the form of a descriptive survey design with a mixed methods approach which combined qualitative research design and quantitative research technique. A sample of 649 Students, 16 secondary school head teachers, and 16 secondary school guidance and counseling officers from 4 provinces in Kenya was used to obtain data for the study. Random and purposive sampling techniques were used. Data was collected using questionnaires and structured interviews. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages, standard deviation, and frequencies was used to discuss the research findings. The study also used inferential statistics, particularly chi-square to test the significant statistical differences on the nature of conflict in schools, how students and teachers experience and perceive conflict in different categories of schools. From the findings, students witness conflict in form of theft, 51.7%, bullying, 29 percent, rumours and fights. Results from males and females indicate that drugs are abused in secondary schools (males (26.8%) and females (13.6 percent). All the respondents revealed that students take drugs to please their peers, and to release stress, and for adventure. On the effectiveness of conflict management programmes, a majority of students accept punishment when they break the school rules (80.0%) as they feel that punishments improve their behaviour. Most of the teachers had not had proper training in conflict management and some of them do not understand the role of peer mediation as they lack such programmes in their schools. The study concluded that failure to train teachers in conflict management skills, and to involve students in decision making causes conflict in schools. The study recommended that life skills, and peace keeping lessons should be taught in schools. In addition, head teachers and teachers should go for a refresher course in conflict management. Also, the study recommends that a comparative study should be done in a wider scope in secondary schools that experience conflict and those that do not, so as to get an insight of the suitable strategies needed to manage conflict in schools.

The purpose of the study was to develop strategies for maintaining discipline among learners in secondary schools in Kenya in the post-caning era. More specifically, the objectives of this study were to: - Examine disciplinary strategies that are revealed in the relevant literature that will assist the Kenyan public secondary schools manage student discipline in the post-caning area; - Examnine the exsisting approaches to discipline that are being adopted by secondary schools in Kenya in the post-caning era; - Develop strategies for managing student discipline in public secondary schools in Kenya in the post-caning era.

The use of corporal punishment in schools is a highly topical and much debated subject worldwide. With the advent of humanitarian principles, corporal punishment was classified by the United Nations (UN) as violence and child abuse and this led to the banning of its use in schools by many countries especially in the western world. Kenya is not an exception as it recently followed suit by banning the use of corporal punishment in schools, through the enactment of Education Act Number 30 of 2001. Despite the ban, information from press reports and other literature seem to indicate that the practice of corporal punishment continued unabated in Kenyan schools. However, there is little information to indicate: (1) whether infact corporal punishment was being practiced in the selected schools or the extent/prevalence and nature of its practice; (2) what maintains corporal punishment in schools; and (3) strategies for eliminating it. Moreover, the extent to which teachers and pupils are aware of the ban is not known. Three main goals of this study, therefore, were to establish: whether corporal punishment was being practiced in Nakuru Municipal primary schools in Kenya; the attitudes that the primary school teachers and pupils hold towards the use of corporal punishment in the selected schools and the impact, if any, that their attitudes had on the practice of this punishment in those schools. The study applied a Survey research design. Questionnaires, with both open-ended and closed-ended items were used to collect data from the respondents. The respondents' attitudes were expressed in terms of their beliefs, feelings and views about the use of corporal punishment in school. The attitudes were measured in terms of the respondents' degree of agreement and disagreement with the attitudinal statements measured along a Likert scale which gauged their beliefs, feelings and views about the use of corporal punishment in the selected schools. The target population consisted of teachers and pupils in four primary schools in Nakuru Municipality. A sample of 72 teachers and 160 pupils was selected. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data using the SPSS software package. The results obtained indicated that corporal punishment was being practiced in the selected schools and the teachers and pupils this practice was supported. Corporal punishment was being practiced by teachers in Nakuru municipal primary schools despite their knowledge of the legal prohibitions and negative consequences of this practice. It was also established that the attitudes of the teachers and pupils towards the use of corporal punishment in school had a significant relationship with the practice of corporal punishment in the four selected schools. Where the teachers and pupils had a favourable or positive attitude towards the use of corporal punishment in school, the level of the practice of corporal punishment was very high but where the teachers and pupils has a negative attitude towards the use of corporal punishment in school, the level of the practice of corporal punishment was extremely low. The teachers and pupils justified the practice of corporal punishment in the selected schools under the belief that it had merits. It (corporal punishment) was believed to be a chastisement for children, a catalyst for good academic performance and the most effective deterrent for bad behavior, laziness and a corrective measure. The conclusion drawn was that the teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes towards the use of corporal punishment in school had a big impact on the practice of corporal punishment in the four Nakuru municipal primary schools. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for curtailing the use of corporal punishment in schools in Kenya. (1.) Abbreviated as CP in some parts of this report. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.