Kenya will pay heavily for mistreating teachers

I’ve said it before — and will say it again. No civilisation, or country, in human history has ever become great without an erudite elite. Ancient cultures — from the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to Mali and Songhai empires — glittered because of learning, trade, and war. Emphasis learning. It’s not an accident that the city of Timbuktu still conjures up images of great scholars and epic tomes. The Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incas of the Americas were architectural and scientific geniuses. The Zulu Empire, the Kingdom of Buganda, Great Zimbabwe, Abyssinia, and Nubia had great intellectual virility. Modern day behemoths like the United States and China have ridden the classroom — and the university — to greatness. But Kenya destroys intellectuals and teachers.

I mourn the death of the Kenyan classroom, the teacher, and the intellectual. I have several reasons why Kenya won’t amount to a hill of beans unless it restores dignity to the teacher, the thinker, the critic. First, the State — going back almost four decades now — has decided that teachers and thinkers should be treated like dirt. They should be demeaned and despised. I don’t know why the State made such a demonic calculation. The teacher has been undressed in public, and turned into a pathetic beggar. She’s poor, woefully underpaid, overworked, and deeply humiliated. Frankly I don’t know why any Kenyan would want to be a teacher today. I am talking about all teachers — from kindergarten to university.