Partnership good for education

The education sector in Kenya is under extreme threat, right from the Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs), through primary and secondary schools to universities.

Although the challenges vary from one sector to the other, they all point to the dangers of the quality of education being offered. Indeed there are two segments offering education in the country - the private and public sectors, all of which are expected to offer quality education and not just churn out graduates who are half-baked.

At the moment, all eyes are on last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results and the impending Form One intake, but there are many questions that we must ask ourselves and find solutions to as far as provision of education in Kenya is concerned.

What has clearly emerged is the fact that although the leading pupil in last year’s KCPE exam scored 449 marks, there are possibilities that just like many of his colleagues in some institutions who sat the same exam, they were drilled by teachers who may have forgotten pupils also need to be high quality products as they transition to secondary schools.

However, not all of these institutions offer poor quality education and cannot be condemned wholesale. However, the backbone of quality education remains the teacher, the syllabus and the availability of textbooks and a conducive learning environment among other supportive needs.

The situation in a majority of public primary and secondary schools is appalling. They lack desks, enough teachers, textbooks, learning materials and teaching aids. The situation deteriorates depending on the development of each geographical region in which they are located compared to the situation in a majority of private schools.

For many years, this state of affairs has shown the adverse consequences they have on the performance of children emerging from those schools and the desperate need to completely overhaul their sorry status to bring them to competitive levels with others, specifically those in the private sector.

The situation for public schools is worsened by persistent teachers’ strikes which raise the question of why teachers in private schools are rarely reported to have gone on strike.

The question of the quality of education in public universities has been a thorny one since the commercialization of education at that level by every known public university when they introduced parallel degree programmes through which they admitted students of lower academic qualifications as they cashed in on the huge fees they charge. Indeed, this state of affairs has forced many parents who can afford to take their children to universities abroad or private schools.

It was quite revealing to see the sorry state of affairs in which most public schools in the country operate when the new Cabinet Secretary for Education Dr Fred Matiang'i made impromptu visits to a primary and secondary school in Mombasa County where in both cases the learning environments were extremely shocking and appalling.

Of course, that is just the tip of the iceberg threatening the education sector which the Cabinet Secretary for Education must deal with decisively and ruthlessly if these negative trends have to be reversed.

This is a tall order that the minister cannot effectively deal with alone. All stakeholders, including those in the private education sector, must be involved at all levels. There is plenty that the government can learn from the private sector educational institutions and that is why partnership between the two is long overdue. Since they also provide education to Kenyan children, they have a right to get the attention of Dr Matiang’i and other senior ministry officials.