WHY THE POOR STAND NO CHANCE IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

 

“The commercialization of courses at university level with the inclusion of the parallel programme will soon make luxurious courses such as medicine, law and engineering a preserve of the affluent in the society.”

Gone are the days when education brought uniformity amongst members of a society irrespective of their social status. Nowadays the bourgeoisies are in control of the education system building private primary schools which drill children through their cram to pass technique which has been crafted and proved effective over the years thus ensuring children of the haves in the society pass with flying colours and join the limited national high schools and best county schools in their numbers.

Those who will not have the opportunity to join national schools and county schools due to their below par performance will head to private high schools for advanced drilling to justify the capita investment of their parents. Here spoon-feeding is the order of the day considering the favorable teacher-student ratio mostly 1:25 at most. Making them record business attractive mean scores such as 399.9999 in primary level and 10.999 in secondary level to boost the student enrollment numbers the following year.

Children from a public school studying under a tree

Whereas their colleagues in the public sector, a hustlers paradise where everything is low; low teacher student ratio, low book ratio, low morale due to low remuneration of teachers and low class attendance. The only thing, which is high, is the student population which leads to ‘mediocre’ mean scores that depicts teachers as jokers who just come to school for the sake of their salaries.

Here read to understand technique applies if you can’t understand the train has just left you at the station. Students from these schools are often faced with financial challenges but those who manage to join national and top county schools become instant performers who are found on the upper sphere of the academic merit list.

The number of parallel students in competitive courses such as medicine, law and engineering has either doubled or tripled the number of their government sponsored counterparts since varsities claim when don’t have the ‘capacity’ to train them but they always have capacity to train the privately sponsored students? Courses such as piloting are a preserve of the rich whereas the poor shift their focus to Education and other arts courses which the government willingly sponsors them in their numbers. Some of these courses are ‘irrelevant’ to the current job market, is this case of generational poverty where the poor are to remain poor until the Lord returns.

A LETTER TO THE POPE

Dear Pope we welcome you to our humble country where corruption and tribalism are the pillars of national unity. Ever since you announced your visit to our country miracles started to happen; our national soccer team Harambee Stars started winning, Anne Waiguru ,the iron lady and state witness to the corruption case at her ministry of Devolution resigned and Njoki Chege the number one male chauvinist  converted to be a female lifestyle advisor.

Kenyans will be united in welcoming you to their country, they will forget about their ethnic identities, political affiliations and religious inclinations. They will come out in their numbers to witness the once in a lifetime event. Politicians who have stolen and misappropriated public finances will be fighting over sitting space as each one of them would want to sit close to or near to you .The last time some of them were seen in churches and other religious gatherings before the last elections as they went to seek divine intervention so as to win elections they have never been seen again. They will request you to pray for them and our country yet the moment you leave they would embark on prayer rallies in stadiums, forests and by the roadside where no mention of a single holy scripture nor the name of our Lord is mentioned infact the number of times they mention the name of their political nemesis is more than they mention the name of the lord.

Christianity as a religion is also under siege since churches have been mushrooming across the country notably in slum areas since religion is the opium of the poor.With funny names I won’t mention ,anyone who thinks he or she can ‘preach’ the Word names himself a prophet and starts to perform miracles using potassium permanganate at a cost of 310/=.Some pastors are responsible for breaking matrimonial homes as they opt to tell wives of their herdsmen bed time stories. Preachers have turned to be guns of hire as they offer their prayer services at a cost for the Burgoises and the political class whereas the poor have been declared persona non granta at some churches since they are deemed liabilities as they cannot contribute the minimum offering required.

Pope Francis

Parents are busy looking for money at the expense of offering moral guidance to their children leading to moral decay in the society. Underage children have embarked of drinking sprees as they try to contribute to ‘positively’ to the economy of the country. Everyone is busy looking for money and more money only a few faithful have time for religion with majority being ‘Sunday Christians’. The President gave us a holiday a day after you arrival as the national prayer day, the problem is the day was on a Thursday but good tidings to ‘shareholders’ of alcoholic companies as they have been given a license to drown themselves in liquor as they roast meat from today up to Sunday only to wake up on Monday complaining how the weekend was short and asking if you were even there and what message did you leave.

Socialites and politicians have overtaken professionals such as doctors, engineers, pilots and  teachers as role models as they are seen as ‘professions’ which one can earn easy cash fast and become rich overnight. High profile professions quit their occupations to venture into politics because they have realized that they are learned but their professional remuneration does not reflect so. On your way back to Vatican tag along  Moses Kuria,William Kabogo and George Aladwa to save Kenyans from any ethnic clashes in the forthcoming elections so that you can pray for them since they are above the law here.

Church songs which we used to sing when we were children such as “Jesus loves me yes I know for the Bible tells me so …….” are no longer sang by the upcoming ‘whatsapp’ generation who sing Roberto’s song Amarula and Vybz Kartel’s Rambo kanambo word by word .

Women have become materialistic to the extent of weighing a man’s husband potentiality on assets he has nothing more nothing less. You cannot talk to a lady in Nairobi without car keys in your hand as a man as handsome as his bank statement. Young ladies who want shortcuts out of poverty have decided to become events thus requiring sponsors to bankroll their lavish lifestyles.

WHY NATIONAL EXAMS HAVE ALWAYS LEAKED

“Exams have always leaked its only that this time  village schools had an opportunity to enjoy what ‘big’ schools have always enjoyed in the past.”

For the first time national secondary school exam leakage has caught the attention of mainstream media to the extent of being the most discussed topic overtaking the slump of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar. Most parents often prefer that their children join the so called ‘best’ performing high schools since they are not only guaranteed of scoring highly in their final exams but also getting the privilege of taking the most competitive available courses such as medicine, dentistry, law and engineering which they later either drop out or transfer to other more accommodative courses. Some at times brave on to graduate that’s why we have ‘Doctors’ like Mugo wa Wairimu.

In a country where the end does not justify the means, as long as you get an A no one cares how you got it as long as you got it. Pressure from parents on principals, teachers and students have pushed these parties to engage in exam malpractices in one way or another. In a society where the passing exam is a symbol of how bright ones future is, no one would hesitate not to cheat if that is the only way his or her survival is guaranteed in a system where corruption which comes in different forms such as this has been institutionalized.

The exam leakage fiasco is not an architect of one man but a master plan of various stakeholders in an unending chain involving all stakeholders who have access to the exam before it is administered and after it is administered through the so called standardization process. What do you expect when a teacher who is an examiner of lets say Agriculture, takes part in setting the exam at the same time has teaching roles back at school, will he be able to deny his students the questions he or she and the team had set? Obviously no, It is human not to. Schools which have the highest number of examiners have always performed better as opposed to those schools where even the principal does not receive an invitation to set even a Christian Religious Education question. When big schools want to justify the amount of fees levied on students plus their status in national ranking getting a higher mean score will be a justification of both.

How a school gets more than 100 A plains has always remained a mystery to me since I know bright classmates of mine who never got As yet they were more than deserving the likes of Dalmas Samlad Ndicho,Brian Wanga,Wandera  Yonah,Alvin Ambunya,Bernard Wanyama the list is long. If these people never got As nobody can convince me a school can amass 100 As ,if they are not beneficiaries of the leakage process. Some schools which were academic giants in the past are fading year after year because their principals and teachers have maintained the old age philosophy of “learn to depend on your brain”,St Marys Yala is a good example.

Moi Girls Eldoret Students sitting for English paper 3. 

Photo courtesy of Google

Yesterday as I was commuting from work, two parents seated in front of me engaged in a debate that caught the attention of nearly half the passengers on board prompting the conductor to switch off the bus music system as various passengers gave their opinions concerning the topic. Both parents had candidates in the ongoing exam. One parent the antagonist claimed the leakage will lock out more deserving students, his included from joining the university since ‘lazy bones’ and ‘dander heads’ who spent most of their time out of class are likely to pass with flying colours and even appear on television to give us lip service on how they never slept yet they know very well at the back of their minds the number of times they went for morning preps to read are countable, They enjoy massive, unlimited media coverage courtesy of exam leakage. The other parent the protagonist in this case said in parables “how one gets to town does not matter as long as he gets to town.” To him as long as a student finds his way to an institution of higher learning, how he got there is none of anyone’s business.

The massive leakages for once have leveled the playing ground between big schools and village schools thus giving the national examinations body a headache of a lifetime.How will the standardization be done now that markers are just going to confirm marking schemes? For the first time ranking might be done according to the alphabetical order the likes of Abednego and Bethsheba will get As, while the likes of Zuzarte and Zedekia will get Ds.

WHY TEACHERS NEVER WANTED US TO BE TEACHERS.

“Having a contrary opinion to that of a teacher was treason or something close to that not even a doctor could have a contrary opinion, what a teacher said was law and it was adopted unanimously.”

When growing up most of my schoolmates apart from me and a few other renegade elements who were sons and daughters of teachers wanted anything to do with the teaching profession considering its nature. Teachers used to go home with a library of books in the name of marking homework which they had given the previous day .Straining their eyes reading poor hand writings and sentences that don’t make sense in the name of marking. Their clothes were always stained with chalk plus they had a persistent cough that only ceased when schools were on recess due to constantly inhaling chalks. Most of them arrived at home so tired after a very hectic day at school dealing with all sorts of children from all sorts of background with all sorts of issues. Their arrival home was not the end of their working hours as parents call after banking hours to inquire about the progress of their children in school since the teacher is the one who could give a clear picture of the academic and moral situation.

During lessons teachers were always inspiring us to work hard so as not to be teachers like them, reason being they wanted us to be the ‘who is who’ in the professional world so as to have improved standards of living. I remember  They always encouraged us to be doctors and nurses so that we could treat them when they fall ill, pilots so that we could make them board a plane for even a minute since they have never boarded planes, judges and lawyers so that we could not sort out their legal issues, journalists so as to write and report about their working conditions and terms of service more so when they strike and Ministers (Cabinet Secretaries) more so for education so that we could improve their living standards and Members of parliament so that we could air their grievances on their behalf. I vividly remember my lower primary teacher retired Mrs. Gitonga telling us that teaching involved a huge workload the size of an elephant accompanied by remuneration the size of a rat “Kazi kama ndovu pesa kama panya”.She kept remind us of this statement so that we would work harder so as not to go through the tribulations she went through.

Teachers demonstrating during a strike

Teachers were the most respected people of our time as they were considered the brains of the society, nobody could have a parallel opinion contrary to that of a teacher as a teacher was always right and whatever they said was law. A teacher’s opinion was sought in any matter that had impact on the society from giving political direction for the societal set up to guiding career choices, teachers were the mentors of our time .Most of my schoolmates knew teachers were the highest paid government officers since the only homesteads that had lamps were either belonging to teachers or a provincial administrator in this case a sub chief other homesteads had tin lamps. A teacher was respected whenever a teacher passes somewhere you stop whatever you are doing and stand still to greet him or her wait for him or her to be out of sight for you to go back to what you were doing initially.Who would not want to be a teacher in such an environment.

Growing up as a son or daughter of a teacher was the most challenging lifestyle as everyone expected you to be on the right, you were supposed to be the holier than though character among your peers all positive examples were supposed to be drawn from you. You were expected to always be at the top end of the merit list, if your name is not called amongst the top ten,almost forgot top three best performing students then doubts will arise on your parentage people will often ask “is that really the son  or daughter of  ‘Mr. K’oluoch’ (let me just use his name because I still remember the Queen’s English he used to speak as if he was born, breed and educated in the United Kingdom) of is he just a nephew or niece.” When the child of a non-teacher performed better than the child of a teacher that would be the trending topic for the whole term more so if it was in the second term which had fourteen week. Everyone expected a son or a daughter to be the genius as you were living in the same house with knowledge, sleeping with knowledge, eating with knowledge and waking with knowledge thus you were definitely supposed to be knowledgeable and have answers to all questions. Personally have never had the slightest dream or ambition of being a teacher the feeling is mutual amongst my siblings who are doing courses in medicine alongside the fellow sons and daughters of teachers we grew up with we had our reasons but our parents also never wanted us to be teachers, they wanted us to be something more than a teacher. 

Teaching is a demanding profession imagine an early childhood education teacher who struggles with a child who does not know how to even hold ‘catch’ a pen, they are supposed to teach that child how to hold the pen and scribble some wordings in the name of writing a name something that is not learnt overnight this can be manifested by a doctors handwriting when issuing a prescription. Teachers are also expected to be a parents at school as he is in charge of the general discipline of children as they spend more time with a child than the parent take for instance a child reports at school at 8am and leaves at 4pm that is exactly 8 hours a day if it is a day school and if it is a boarding school teachers spend nine out of the twelve months with children with no parental allowance they do so since they have the hearts of a parent and they would not like their children to be treated.

Taking blame is something many of us don’t like but to teachers this is an occupational hazard as they are often blamed for poor performance of the children. Parents expect their children to perform well failure to which teachers are the problem, their children aren’t thus teachers are expected to be magicians; transform poor performing students into academic competitors not participants .Cases of teachers being beaten by parents are a common occurrence more so when an academic institution performs below the expectations of the public yet teachers are not given risk allowance.

MOI UNIVERSITY STUDENT ON THE VERGE OF OPENING A CONSULTANCY

Evance Owino popularly known as ‘Evano’ a third year Moi University student taking communications and public relations is on the verge of opening a public relations consultancy next month. “It has taken me close to 14 months to conceptualise and actualise this idea of setting up a consultancy,” said Evans yesterday when he officially launched the consultancy’s website www.corporateanchorpr.com which will act as an interactive forum between the client and the consultancy. “Having carried out market research in Nairobi and Kisumu with the help of my lecturer Dr Lang’at, I was able to obtain information on the needs of clients thus being able to customise my services to fit their needs” The consultancy aims at providing specialised services such as litigation PR, Crisis Pr, Corporate PR, Celebrity PR amongst other specialised services as requested by the client. Corporate Anchor Pr will blend in what local PR consultancies do and what International consultancies do so as to be able to provide satisfactory services to clients .In a brief message sent to his classmates Evans thanked all who supported him and continue to support him in his PR consultancy project. The consultancy is set to be based at Garden City Mall in Nairobi. For more information about the consultancy be free to visit other social media sites such as twitter @Corporate Anchor, Facebook and Google+ Anchor PR. www.corporateanchorpr.com

ATTACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE

 Part One

The moment I ‘landed’ in third year the first thing I knew was that am a senior student waiting for fourth years to finish their few months before I officially become an elder and a finalist. Little did I know that there was something known as industrial attachment which one had to look for as part of the course. The moment you receive your attachment logbook and letter reality dawns, the course you are taking has limited or wide range of opportunities. In this case there are two things involved if your course has a wider scope you are safe, if your course has limited scope, a course even your lecturer is not sure where you are going to be employed or attached then know that your three year study at the university is wasted or something close to that.

During our departmental briefing our head of department Dr, Professor, and Commonwealth Scholar clearly stated that he will not come to supervise any student who goes for attachment in remote areas such as Mfangano Island and those islands in lake Victoria where boats are the only means of transport thus ferrying his French made Peugeot to and from the island a near impossible task thus making his mobility a problem. Proff also assured us that together with other lecturers in our department they won’t be able to supervise students who ‘decide’ to go for attachment in areas, which have security problems such as banditry plus areas with no telecommunication network since he cannot afford to be off the grid with his i-phone 6. Attachment supervision was limited within the borders of the republic those of us who had secured attachment overseas, my friend Andy Muphasa and I in this case had attachments already waiting for us to avail ourselves physically in Southern Sudan. However, we had to forego them since the jurisprudence of our department ends at Lodenyang and Lokichogio in Turkana County.

Having been instructed in advance not to take up funny responsibilities such as being a flower girl, tea boy, office messenger, file placement and displacement officer, number plate registration officer and receptionist. Being choosy in selecting an organization for attachment became mandatory so as not to be given those funny responsibilities. Getting an attachment seemed to be a herculean task more so if you are doing these courses which just came up the other day, the ones’ the office messenger and the gateman at the Organisation where you drop your Request For Attachment (RFA) letter have no idea if it is a course or a name of a person in the organization.

The emergence of new courses some of which are units of a mainstream course make it very difficult for attaches to get a field attachment. Despite having the a RFA letter four months prior to the day the attachment was set to begin and having dropped them in all organizations manually, all organizations that their names crossed my mind no response yet making me wonder where ‘Proff’ wants me to get an attachment. Most organizations decided to be ‘petty’ asking for documents such as primary school leaving certificate, high school leaving certificate, birth certificate, chief’s letter and certificate of good conduct which is given by the men in blue after a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of infinity for it to be processed as if I was a criminal. The moment you provide them with the required certificates they shift the goal post again claiming they need your first, second and third year complete transcripts, which obviously you don’t have instead of telling you directly there are no vacancy for attaches’ they take you for a merry go round ride which never ends, you just give up voluntarily.

Colleagues who often said from day one in our first year of study that they know where they will be attached and employed with “this course of ours” which we were given either voluntarily by the rebranded joint admissions board (JAB) or involuntarily courtesy of cut off points or something close to that. Some even claimed that the easiest thing to get is attachment as long as you take your letter personally to the organisation, having taken many letters to organizations personally and even applying online , nothing seemed to be coming my way ,the more I applied the more frustrated I became.

To be continued………………………….