Kenya's education system due for review

You know you belong to a different generation when you hear your parents say today's Form Four student is no better than a Class Seven pupil in their Certificate for Primary Education days.

If you consider recent reports on pupils in upper primary struggling to read a paragraph from a book they are supposed to have read while in lower primary or those in high school who "murder" English when asked to read a set book, then you begin to wonder how much quality this generation is adding to national life.

Having been a teacher myself, I empathize with those in the education sector and their need to push the Government to create an environment that inspires respect for teachers both in public and private institutions.

We, however, need to re-look at the entire education system to make the renewal of our young minds certain.

A beginning point would be to probe why we have become more tribal over the years even when some of us have scaled great heights in education.

It is all the more puzzling, considering that we have some of the best teachers, syllabi and infrastructure than our more challenged neighbours. It must concern us all the sort of student leaders we have today at some of our premier institutions of higher learning.

In high schools across Kenya, not a day goes by without the odd report of varying levels of indiscipline; in recent days exemplified by exam cheating, sex and drug orgies.

Even worse, citizens cheer them in this foolishness; I liken it to a wind of change eternally blowing over the land yet as Martin Luther once put it: "There is nothing more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

My sense theory is that we have held on to a dead system for far too long, not acknowledging its limitations and working fast to remedy them for our age.

Teachers, disillusioned by instability in the labour sector, care less for the young charges in their care. A recent report by Uwezo Kenya on learning outcomes in Kenya reveals that in Turkana, the teacher pupil ration stands at 1:86, further worsening the situation in similar counties.

Rote learning and aging yellow notes, on the other hand, remains the mode of operation in some schools. Our universities are no different.

The other day, I had a chat with a graduate who recently got a job in a local media house and he told me that a certain politician should not be trusted. I was bemused, considering the finality with which he spoke, as he could not justify his opinion any further.

We have, it would appear, lost not only the art of conversation, but also persuasion in institutions that ordinarily ought to have inculcated this most basic of soft skills.

We, therefore, regurgitate in public what we hear in private, with no sense of the past, present, and how they both weave into an emerging future. Anyone hoping the youth will drive an informed agenda towards the 2017 polls is, therefore, sadly mistaken.

A transformative education should help us remove the scales of prejudice from the eyes of our young and not so young. It should produce learners who are keen to understand before they jump to conclusion, and citizens who engage their brains more than their tongues, honest about their personal journeys, and bold enough to stand for others and timeless ideals.

As and when we next revise the syllabus in our schools, let the curriculum reflect the challenges we face today. For a start, bring back the subjects Music, Art and Craft that set some of us on the path towards creative thinking and self-employment.

Bring back Government, History and Civics lessons that helped us understand our past and present. Bring back Agriculture so that our children cease to think of farming as some obscene word.

Let us review what we have offered in the past against what we now have, and construct a more meaningful and relevant future for us all.