By Charles Okoth
Nobody can deny the fact that before the former Education Cabinet Secretary Dr, Fred Matiang’i and KNEC Chairman Prof. George Magoha were appointed; the education sector had gone to the dogs.
Examinations, which are a key factor to evaluating the effectiveness of an educational system, had been hijacked by cartels who wanted to benefit from the chaos that had been created.
Irregularities were thus ingrained in the school system. In fact, participating in them was the norm rather than the anomaly.
Those who were foolhardy enough not to embrace them found themselves on the receiving end of the system, accused of being too lazy to be heads of schools.
As the saying goes, whoever would feast with hyenas must expect to be the meat.
It is being said that the lot that benefitted from this rotten state of affairs and proceeded to university and other colleges have had it rough.
Those who are still there are seeing dust, if some intimation from their teachers is anything to go by.
Many who qualified, and were chosen for, courses like Engineering, Medicine, Law, and the like, had to give up mid-stream and enroll for Anthropology, Disaster Management, Social Work, B.Ed C.R.E, and the like.
Some university schools and colleges have recorded mass failure. If these are not explained, one can only make a subjective conclusion: the students did not merit the admissions.
As the Chinese say,’ it is fine to ride on the back of a tiger, but it is fatal to dismount”.
All must be ready to get their dose of the curses that come with espousing a social ill, like the said irregularities, and even institutionalising it.
One key dose is indiscipline in schools.
Many people were wondering about the fires and assorted acts of indiscipline in schools sometime back.
From my own experience, students tend to be disciplined if they think those executing the discipline (the teachers) are really a necessity.
If they know that they can do without them and still pass, they will not bother with them. I have had experiences where students despised teachers so much that they did not even bother to attend classes.
In one school, a student told teachers that they could not punish him.
In a situation where a teacher is seen as superfluous, one cannot expect discipline. And where there is indiscipline, one must expect chaos, including teacher beatings, burning of buildings, and assorted acts of indiscipline.
In such a case, teachers must suffer quietly, their hands securely tied by laws barring them from doing anything except ‘guidance’ and ‘counseling’.
The same teachers are expected to have the heart to help those boys and girls. It is a trial and a half, as they say.
It is said that some parents would contribute money for a school so that the head ‘could buy’ examination papers. I don’t want to exert myself over such a thing. If it happened anywhere, I direct a powerful jet of curses to those parents, and any head teacher who facilitated this sort of thing.
And I have no apologies: an adult who participates in the corrupting of youth is a great disservice to any nation.
