Quality of education in Kenya

Tha standard of education in Kenya has worsened by the years. The initial 8.4.4. system that equipped students with many life skills eg Art and Craft, Music was scrapped.

Free education has been led to drop of quality, schools that used to have 20-30 students per class now carry 50+ students. The teachers on the other hand have not been motivated as well.

Another factor about our education is the fact that most teachers in the public schools are almost hitting the retirement age. I have gone round several schools and truely speaking, a higher percentage of the  teachers are 50 years and above. Has anyone in the TSC stopped to ask what will happen in 15 years to come since every new graduate is looking for a white colour job?

The other problem in our education system is the revision of content, have any of you ever stopped to ask a child who is schooling in America which countries share Lake Victoria? I will give you that homework.

I once visited the so called land of greener pastures and met a gentle man who told me to go say hi to his long term friend from Nigeria called Okufu. Yes, as I suggested before, they do not concentrate on learning things that will not help them achieve their goals in life.

I usually go for jogging early in the morning and today morning, I happened to wake up earlier than usual. I met a 7-year-old girl being forced by one of the elder sisters from the tiny village of Nyalenda, Kisumu county at 5.45am carrying a big bag walking to school.

The current education system does not seem to favour our young generation. A 7year old child is not supposed to be walking to school at 6am in the morning. We are overburdening our children and not helping them achieve anything.

I happen to have gone through the 8.4.4 system and was in the first class to do the 5 subject KCPE exams as well as the use of calculator in high school.

When I joined the working class and waved bye bye to the tax free wages from "Dad" I was lost, not knowing what to do, I had to start learning all over again. Communication was an issue, having come from the famous "Eastlands" where Sheng was the spoken word.

I had to change or loss my job where english was the language of communication and suits were the order of the day.

We need to change our education system to avoid the loss of our future generation. We should make a child work towards achieving a certain target.

In the developed world, a teacher can tell that this child likes music and from a tender age, the child will have a curriculum concentrating on music. In our beloved Kenya, the only inspiration we have is to be like our parents. If your father is an accountant, you aspire to be an accountant, if your father is a bodaboda rider, a child will also aspire to be a bodaboda rider. I can bet that we have over 50% of form 4 leavers who dont have a clue of the career path they want to follow.

Also for the parents who have no time for the children due to work or further studies, try and make time for your child when they are young because that is the only time you will have with them.