FIRST WORD
MAL/28/19
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Marketing William Kalombo, Mutua Mutua,
Africa Riapius Magoma, Benard Ojow,
Team Allan Muraya, Fred Ombati
Editorial Mutua Mutua
Contributors Herman Githinji
Diana Obath
Boniface Ngahu
Eugene Wanekeya
Senorine Wasike
Irene Mbonge
Enock Wandera
Robert Wamai
Shannon Brain
Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
Lucy Kiruthu
Carolyne Gathuru
Susan Perrols
Aisling McCarthy
Albert Josiah
Dr. Maureen Owiti
Andrew Riungu
Frida Owinga
Dr. Wale Akinyemi
Jim Bouchard
George Mbithi
Isaac Ngatia
Marion Wakahe
Kepha Nyanumba
Wasilwa Miriongi
Timothy Oriedo
Dr. Clifford Ferguson
Jennifer Mwangangi
Richard Wanjohi
On Crisis Mode
S
ince the introduction of the 8:4:4 school system we, as a country
have grappled trying to fix a faulty system with numerous
commissions of enquiry and endless curriculum amendments
(not development) to address the many issues that have been raised
about the system.
Ironically this has not dampened the song and dance that
accompanies the release of the yearly exam results where we fete our
little heroes and heroines who have somehow managed to conquer
a broken and imperfect system.
Schools go on an advertising binge to claim how their particular
school has the answer to our crazy exam oriented school system that
is more interested in producing grades rather than well rounded
individuals that are not just exam passing robots and can actually
think independently.
This year kick-off with a new problem, after a lengthy and we are
sure expensive process we were informed that a new syllabus was to
be rolled out, ostensibly to fix the many ills of the current system
and at last Kenyans could expect quality education.
As with many things Kenyan the hype and the implementation
process seem to be organized in separate countries and there always
seems to be an unexplained hitch when it comes to roll out a
program that we have been told is ready to roll.
CS Amina, sensibly postponed the implementation of the new
curriculum citing that her ministry was not ready and we would like
to believe her since it is her ministry and we gave her the job due to
competence and her judgment is valid.
It is the deafening silence of the many
supposed stakeholders that is causing us
concern and raising many questions that
must be asked as the effects of what now
seems to be a botched implementation of
the new system will come back to haunt
us. Are the Kenyan parents about to be
duped into another experiment where the
teachers are complicit in the ruining the
future of the country by producing half-
baked students so long as their salary
negotiations are upheld irrespective of
whether they teach or not. We know we are in an education crisis
but somehow we have taken the ostrich
approach and hope that if we keep our
heads in the sand long enough the untidy
issue of educating our children will pass
over and we can deal with it after we get
our next president.
Is it us who are being fussy and nitpicking
or should we be concerned by the fact
that parents seems to be in the dark about
this new development that affects their
children. Parents are not a fee paying
machine but a person development unit
and they offer the best they can to their
children. Every five years we dutifully line up and
choose our representatives to the many
houses of representatives in Kenya. Are
we to believe that both houses have no
committees that deal with education and
that they have not sat since 2017? Unfortunately the problem we are
allowing to fester now and have willingly
allowed the CS to be brow-beaten alone
will have such serious consequences that
we are going to lose a generation or two
before the mess we have created now is
resolved.
Why are our representatives silent? We
choose them usually in bloody and chaotic
fashion in the belief that we have put the
best advocates for our needs into the
houses. But it appears that they too have
the teacher’s malaise and so long as they
increase their salaries and perks no work
needs be done. To be in a crisis is bad, to not know that
we are in a crisis is worse but to pretend
that we have no crisis when we know we
are in one is the worst of all. Unfortunately
those we should turn to for a remedy can
afford to send their children elsewhere to
be educated. There-in lays the tragedy!
Why are the teachers, known in Kenya
for their penchant for striking especially
just at the moment when their protégés
are about to sit for exams, silent. There
was some half-hearted support for the CS
from the teachers as they claimed they
had not been trained. But it fizzled out.
Are we to believe that the behemoth that
is the teacher’s union genuinely have no
collective opinion on whether the new
curriculum that they are supposed to teach
is ready or not? And if it is ready why have
we not heard a loud endorsement.
Somehow the plight of our education
system does not seem to have found
expression in the Kutangatanga politics
and educations seems to be such a boring
and too technical a subject that it is never
an election issue and it should be.
Education was meant to be the great
equalizer but in Kenya it is surreptitiously
becoming the great segregator as the rich
perpetuate their privilege by offering
quality education to their children while
the government experiments with those of
the poor.
She even went on to explain that such a major change in our
education system cannot be implemented in a haphazard way and
certainly without checking out the big picture and mapping out the
ramifications of the new system on the education infrastructure.
She was adamant, as a responsible and accountable officer should
be, that the curriculum was being rushed and there was going to
be serious setbacks that were best handled and resolved before the
system was rolled out.
But in the best Kenyan tradition she was informed, not subtly but
firmly, that the new and improved system had better roll out or else!
There are some battles that are not worth fighting even if you are
right as the pushback was obviously immense and powerful.
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Marketing Africa
02 MAL28/19 ISSUE
What we find amazing as Kenyans is that she seemed to be on this
fight by herself and we find it strange and must ask, what bothered
her so much that she was willing to take on what we must now
begin to view as the education mafia.
The education system has many stakeholders and the most important
is the student as the schooling is meant eventually to impact on
Kenya and the vision of its leaders if we assume that there as such
leaders and the proposed system is based on their vision.
If they indeed do have a vision then we must assume that they
have done an extremely poor job in selling their vision. A vision
as important as the future of the country surely must be clearly
articulated and sold to all stakeholders.
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