Kabete National Polytechnic marks 100 years - and why it matters to me

The Kabete National Polytechnic in Kiambu County. [Courtesy]

The Kabete National Polytechnic is 100 years old. In that century, it has gone through mutations from native industrial training depot (NITD), the reason the small town next to it is called N.

It then became a technical school, a technical training institute and finally a national polytechnic. I will not be surprised if it becomes a technical university.

Kenya seems unique; we nurture institutions or promote them till they mature. Would it not be more prudent to build new ones? What happens to the students who interests were catered for by promoted institution?

Think of a local secondary school promoted into national status. Where would the local students go? Is the Kenya model applicable elsewhere? This mutation or promotion has some comical outcomes, men who are alumni of girls’ schools!

Back to Kabete National Polytechnic. The word national is contrasted with village polytechnics that seem to have been promoted into vocational training institutions, a nobler name.

The original native industrial training depot was just that, to train locals - then called natives - on technical skills such as masonry, carpentry, welding, wiring, and plumbing. It seems women never got to NITD, where did they go? When the institution was promoted into a technical school, the same courses remained.

I am an alumnus of that institution, where I spent four years of my life. Let me share a few of such memories.

One, did you know that technical schools never taught biology? No one foresaw biotechnology? Why did someone think that biology was a distraction from technology? We did not know there was no biology till we found it missing on the timetable!

Two, the curriculum was too narrow and was tailored to producing workers as soon as possible. Within four years, someone had basic skills to start working. Some of my classmates went to work after Form 2. By Form 2, I had designed a radio and showed off in the village with a large aerial.

I did not know how narrow the curriculum was until I went to a completely different school, Alliance. In addition to biology, they had foreign languages and lots of extracurricular activities.

There was rugby, hockey, swimming, drama and, most memorable, interaction with girls’ schools including the swimming gala! I got my first punishment at Alliance for failing to get a pen pal from the neighbouring girls’ school.

Comparing the two schools, I appreciated the importance of giving students choices and head starts in life with an enriched curriculum. A simple example: If you studied French in high school and you later become an engineer, think of the many countries where you can comfortably work in Africa.

Is CBC giving our children choice through an enriched curriculum? Competency is on academics, life skills, sports, and arts. How can we know we have competency in something we have not been exposed to?

Missed opportunities

The other key lesson in my four years at Kabete is that we should not specialise too early in our academic life. Specialisation ‘blocks’ your mind to opportunities. Someone has noted that BA or BSc graduates seem to perform better in life than specialists. They can exploit many opportunities as specialists say, “this is not for me”. 

Another memory was the ‘transfer system’. If you wanted a course that was not available in your technical school, you could transfer in Form 3 to another school. But the feeling was that Kabete was the premier technical school and there was no need to transfer. Nairobi city was also alluring. Can we encourage such transfers in senior high school under CBC?

My teachers were very diverse. We had lots of Asian and Ugandans. Asians taught us science, maths, physics and chemistry. A Ugandan taught me English, thank him for this article. Now you know why India is the pharmacy of the world and leader in computer science. And why Google, Microsoft and IBM have CEOs of Indian descent.  

Such diversity of teachers was appropriate for a diverse student body. Technical schools were national schools. They produced the manpower needed after uhuru, but they did not change fast enough as technology changed.

By the time I was finishing the four years, my ambition of being an engineer had faded. The curriculum was dull and not stimulating. And it had few choices, which narrowed my life choices. I had dreamed of designing Kenya's first jet fighter.

Looking back into those years in a technical school, I now fully understand why elite schools are expensive. The choices they give to the students is the premium parents are willing to pay. I also understand clearly that choices have consequences, more so in careers. What if I had studied biology? A foreign language? 

Though I shifted from technology, I appreciate it, its potential and limits. I majored in electrical technology but I am now more homely with frugal innovations and sinology.