Why I might not thank Education CS Dr Fred Matiang'i yet

Education Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang'i. [Photo: Jonah Onyango/Standard]

Dear Sir

You have done us proud. The efficiency and effectiveness including the speed with which you have brought changes in the education sector can only be envied by many. I know you do not work alone but with a dedicated team. I usually tell my students that the word TEAM means Together Everyone Achieves More and true to this meaning, you have steered a team that has achieved a lot more than before.

Sir, I have a number of issues arising from the results that are lingering in my mind. Suffice it to mention just one or two. A drop of almost 100 per cent in A grades from 2,685 to 141 has tales to tell. An individual school dropping from 159 As and 103 A- to zero As and only 3 A- has even more tales to tell. Perhaps we shall hear these tales.

From my university desk I am debating with myself whether to curse you or praise you. I am told the current government university capacity for freshmen is 96,500. That therefore means that the Government will absorb all the 88,000 students who scored a C+ plus and above. This I extrapolate from the 2008 education reforms which state that the minimum university enrolment is a C+ in all courses.

What will happen to the parallel degree programmes since there will be no C+ student left out? What about private universities? And yet I am told there is a move to eradicate non degree programmes from universities! (I stand corrected). Here I will suspend my thank you.

On the other hand with only a few students joining universities I see the following possibilities come the year 2020:

First and foremost, there will no longer be a flooding of degrees leading to more graduates than the job market openings. The Kenyan degree will have regained its respect and accolade as in the 1970s while the diploma will be a significant paper to possess in this country.

Graduates could be getting placements before they complete their university courses and professionals will be true and of high quality. Doctors will be quality doctors... treating cancer and doing kidney transplants and teachers will be quality teachers... producing intelligent and academically sound students...

All this because a cure for our ill education system seems to have been found... here you get my bouquet.

But wait a minute sir, in this country of ours the announcements of national examination results normally focus on transitions only e.g. From Standard Eight to Form One or from secondary school to university. This approach obscures the many children who do not remain in school long enough to become KCSE examination candidates and those who become candidates but do not make it to higher levels.

As they progress through classes many drop out before becoming candidates for national exams. Many of those who drop out of school miss out on training and educational opportunities that require at least a secondary school certificate and they are not few.

The message I am putting across is that the 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination candidates who got their results are lucky because a majority of their peers dropped out of school before reaching Form Four. By the beginning of 2014, 65 per cent of the original 1,311,700 that enrolled in Standard One had already dropped out.

Children who drop out miss out on training and educational opportunities that require at least a secondary school certificate. They are likely to earn less in their lifetime and suffer more ill-health. The 2016 results show that many of those who finished form four will not be able to join university.

 If my past research is anything to go by then there may not be enough capacity in tertiary non-university institutions to absorb them. This is because the largest enrollers like the former polytechnics and colleges were converted to universities.

Sir might you be thinking of allowing universities to enrol certificates and diplomas to absorb the non C+? But that can only be for those who reached form four and obtained a grade. There are those categories I have enumerated above.

Sir, might you want as a stop-gap measure to create a policy of business incubation centres to absorb them? A business incubation centre per county would be a good figure to start with.

In my opinion a long-term measure is to borrow a leaf from best practices and introduce entrepreneurship education starting right at primary school. This can best be done when there is a policy component for such an education. Such a policy component is doable.

The key benefits that have accrued to those introducing entrepreneurship education at primary and secondary schools include, but are not limited to: Higher academic achievement due to the inculcated culture of creativity and innovation. There is also increased self-esteem and respect among pupils.