Are our schools the new national dustbins?

Kids walking home from Loresho primary school through UoN. Will they one day study in the university? [Photo by XN Iraki]

Every time there is a big issue in the country, citizens call for the issue to be included in the school curriculum.

The two issues that got there are environmental education and HIV/AIDS. That has not arrested deforestation or more infections. May be as divorce cases rise, it shall become a topic in the school curriculum.

If corruption is a national problem we call for the subject to be taught in school. There used to be an examinable subject called Social Education and Ethics (SEE) in high school. If there is terrorism, we demand it be taught in schools.

Schools are seen as the vanguard against what is wrong with the society. Apart from general citizenry, parents also believe the schools will solve their children’s problems, from indiscipline to joblessness. Policy makers are not far behind.

The school has become the new dustbin, where all the societal problems real or imagined are dumped. Even parents want their kids to stay in school for as long as possible. They want to ‘dump them’ in school. Entrepreneurs are awake offering holiday activities, from trips to camps at a fee.

Parents, not teachers drive holiday tuition; they want kids away from home. Parents seem to believe that the more time kids stay in school, the more they learn, and the higher the chances of succeeding in exams and in life. OECD notes that the amount of time spent in school is much less important than how the available time is spent and on which subject, what methods of teaching and learning are used, how strong the curriculum is, and how good the teachers are.

Interestingly, there was no tuition in the former A levels which were more demanding. The firm belief that schools can solve all our problems has roots in our culture. Educated people got jobs, and progressed. With time, the society saw education and schools as the solution to all its problems.

Spending more time in school particularly being taught instead of learning is often counterproductive. Kids develop dependency. That is why our kids seem less confident of themselves today than in the past, they are never left on their own to solve problems.

Taught all the time

It is legitimate for the society to expect schools to solve its problems. After all, students are often at the most creative phase of their lives and lots of resources are poured into education. In this year’s budget, education took about 22 per cent. Some of the best known brands like Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Federal Express and Google were started by students.

Are schools ready to solve societal problems? Schools can help the societies solve its problems in a number of ways. First, it is by molding the next generation to be more responsible as adults. And two, by being the seedbed of new ideas through research and development. But are we making our kids responsible by demanding they be taught all the time?

Paradoxically, we claim 8-4-4 system is overcrowded but we want more to be taught. If you went through a missionary school or great schools, kids go beyond class work; they do manual work, wash their clothes, clean classes, and in one old school, cooked their own uji.

Sports were also an integral part of curriculum. What happened to handcraft and domestic sciences? What do our kids do today apart from going to class? The rioting by students over reduction in their August holidays should not be dismissed.

Do we give enough resources to schools to help them solve our problems? How much of the money goes to research and development? Do we retrain the teachers? Do they get access to the latest information on education and related issues? How comes most primary schools are monuments?

When Jubilee government got power they promised laptops to primary school kids. Did anyone realise that schools were the last to get laptops after government offices, and other institutions? Yet they should have been the first! They might also be the last to get Wifi. One of the best ways to make schools problem solvers is get the right people to work there. The Ministry of Education should demand that universities only admit to Bachelor of Education only those students who had it as their first choice. Such teachers will translate their commitment to students; schools will change. That is why missionaries were so successful.

To solve our societal problems, schools must be supported by parents, governments and other stakeholders. But do they? Of the 22 percent of the national budget that goes to education in Kenya, what goes to the kid? Why are private schools thriving?

Schools will always be the conveyor belt to transmit our values and expectations to the next generation. It is not accidental that nations that have rapidly developed in the last 50 years reformed their education system, not redistributing the years but through content, and most important inspiring the next generation. We cannot be exceptional.