Discipline as a tool for effective school management

The measure of the executive is the ability to get the right thing at the right time. This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. To be effective, is the job of the executive. One of the most effective management tool used by an executive of an institution or organisation is discipline. To many people, discipline means punishment, pain, and fear. According to this view discipline is a negative word and considered as not being positive and educative. This paper discusses the place of punishment as a discipline in education. It outlines the five types of punishment and describes how they are used in schools or in the classroom, reasons for punishing students and the results of such punishment on students learning. It will also examine the implications of discipline in relation to the government ban on corporal punishment and the new constitution of vision 2030. The paper ends by providing suggestions that principals of secondary schools need to learn essential skills which are effective for school management.