The banning of mobile phones in schools by the education minister Prof Sam Ongeri was not the best remedy. Rather the schools should train and guide students on responsible usage of mobile phones. If schools trained students on how to use the mobile phones responsibly, principals would find these tools could be efficient means of communication. Short message services (SMS) in passing important information to students; principals will find that SMS can be a useful tool of intelligence required to monitor trends and predict what is likely to happen in his school.

Schools need internet connectivity and equip them with relevant programs such as Email Outloook Express to enable the students to send emails to the authorities on issues that affect them and have strong feelings about them. Use of prefects to collect intelligence is not appropriate. Students selected by the principal to update him on the going on in school are seen by their colleagues as traitors. Moreover, the principal tends to display favour for the student who provides him with vital information, leading to resentment and hatred.

Mobile phones will go a long way in turning the school leadership into "open-book management," that is, a nearly complete sharing of critical information among the school community. There will be less ‘stump speech’ from the school head, and more of disillusive, solicitous and sharing of what is happening in the school, also the thinking and rationale that lead to decisions being made in particular ways.

It is crucial that people in positions of school leadership take seriously their need to communicate. Constructive engagement of students is important in the successful running of a school. "Failure to communicate," whatever their origins, are an avoidable toxin affecting schools' capacities for change, advancement, and a thriving future.

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