the youth face today. We don’t really understand democracy. A lot of students shout ‘freedom, freedom’ in class without properly understanding what democracy is about. On student surmised: The freedom that we get in secondary school is being abused by some students because there is no guidance. Freedom should come with guidance. Participatory mechanisms in schools Many children feel that there is insufficient opportunity for participation in primary schools; but most agreed that once they moved to secondary school, ‘things changed’ for the better. ‘In primary school […] all the decisions seem to be made by the teachers.’ In primary school, if we say something it is ‘nonsense’. We feel the difference a lot— ‘We have such freedom now!’, that’s how we feel when we get to secondary school. […] Once you change from primary to secondary school you really feel the difference. As an example, children compared their participation in the organisation of school activities at the primary school level with that of the secondary level. When you come to secondary school it is the prefects who run most things; like the Assembly for instance. Make announcements, hoist the flag and other things. In primary school it is the supervisors who do all these things. Children only recite the Qur’an. In secondary school it is prefects who run the whole ceremony. Another student remarked that it was only after he joined primary school that he has had the opportunity to participate in a forum such as the focus group. ‘In primary school it didn’t seem as if I even existed.’ Children with special needs were happy with the level of consultations with them when teachers plan their lessons. They reported, however, that they have not been consulted at all in matters relating to school policies or the curriculum. Nor are they sufficiently consulted or their views sought in matters related to extra-curricular activities in schools. Broadly speaking, children in secondary school feel that their views are being taken into consideration. They are satisfied with the mechanisms for electing students to leadership positions because it is done through student votes. However, these findings should be treated with some caution—as previously mentioned, a majority of the students who attended the focus groups were themselves in leadership positions or were high achievers in school. Had there been more students within the groups who were more average, the findings may well be different. Even within the groups that attended, for example, there were some who found an unacceptable distance between them and the students in leadership roles. 37