Is our chaotic schooling system starting to unravel?

It’s true that the state has lost control of high schools. The spate of dorm burnings and the utter lack of order and purpose in our high schools are extremely alarming. I want to suggest that this downward spiral to damnation started in the 1980s. I won’t blame it on the 8-4-4 system because I think that’s a lazy reach. Even so, the 8-4-4 system was ill-thought, and a product of thoughtless planning. To this day, I don’t know what malignancy the bureaucrats were attempting to cure. But I digress. My focus today isn’t on high schools, but on colleges and universities. Simply put, those in charge don’t know whether they are coming, or going. Let’s peel the onion.

Kenya’s educational system was always doomed even when it functioned extremely well. It was elitist and unforgiving. In my day, it was easier to go to university than to pass through the eye of a needle. That’s because the system was designed to guillotine virtually every student leaving but the most gifted standing. It was deliberately created to look like a pyramid. For example, only two of us (myself and another chap) made it to the university from my primary school. All the others — mostly able students — were felled by the wayside. Out of 60, a dozen made it to O Levels, and then a miniscule number to A Levels. This story was repeated in every school in the country.