Alternative Routes to University Exist Apart from Grades

Erick Kiraithe, the Government Spokesman, gave a compelling narrative on the pathway to a university graduation square (Daily Nation, 14 April). He asserts that there is only one universal route to a university: grades.

 I disagree. My view is that there are numerous routes to the University and Kiraithe's narrative suffers the universal malaise of every single story.

First, let me disaffiliate myself from any notion that mediocrity and fraud should be defended. Governor Joho seriously owes Kenyans proof of the authenticity of his certificates, because when the putrid voices of politics and ethnicity are muted, ours should be like all societies worldwide, expecting that universities present a peculiar platform of meaning and endless sense of becoming which shines to all mankind.

Otherwise, there would be no better explanation for the hallowed spaces that research and publication occupy in our universities. It is for this reason, this 'endless sense of becoming' that universities have called to their graduation squares, individuals who are barely literate but have made significant contributions to mankind.

Recently, here at home, Mama Sarah Obama was awarded a honorary Doctorate of letters by Great Lakes University 'for engaging in charity and for her passion for feeding and educating the less fortunate in the society.

Universities may not necessarily be the natural cradle of philanthropy, but in a University 'an ordered relations to our environment which secures the stability essential for living' is authenticated.

John Dewey, the American educator, and himself an advocate of plurality wrote extensively on the struggle with the environment in his book, 'Art as Experience.' Universities have rewarded exemplary experience without regard to grades. 

To be fair to Kiraithe, both had first to secure admissions to study in ivy league universities before leaving to pursue their passion in computers. But it does not take away the assertion by Kiraithe that whoever scores a D- at whatever stage is despicable. Fraud and theft are despicable. 

More recently Donald Trump's nominee, Monica Crowley, watched as a potential White House career, went up in smoke when she was busted for plagiarism in her book and PhD dissertation. All those with fraudulently acquired certificates have no moral authority to guide our collective search for meaning.

 In fact, Universities should be allowed to recall awards to alumni who have embarrassed them by living life of vices or for hurting society. 

In 2014, US Senator John Walsh of Montana was forced to abandon his quest after being charged with plagiarism in his master's thesis. 

The late Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both great inventors and entrepreneurs are college drop-outs, who in their later years have hopped from one graduation square to another for the most prestigious universities in the World. 

Fraud and theft are despicable. In fact, Universities should be allowed to recall awards to alumni who have embarrassed them by living life of vices or for hurting society. 

Experience took Musa Juma and William Ingosi Mwoshi to the lecture theaters of our Music faculties despite their humble academic achievements. Musa Juma's lyrics and compositions are serious references for Music students today as is William Mwoshi's 'Mwana wa Mberi.'