Some weeks back, I met a parent from Chuka in Tharaka Nithi County, and he narrated to me a tale that should make the folks at education ministry very happy. This gentleman’s son studies in some school in Siaya County, and when schools opened, or when they were supposed to open, he accompanied his son to the school.
They booked an overnight bus to Siaya town, thus, he spent half the day in Nairobi and left at 10pm. They arrived in Siaya very early in the morning. And to freshen up, have breakfast and kill time too, they booked a day room in a local hotel.
He took the boy to school at 4pm and toyed with the idea of paying for accommodation for the night, but decided to travel that evening back to Nairobi, and then to Chuka.
Less than a week later, he called a teacher at the school to find out what was going on, and he was told that First, Second and Third Formers were being sent back home. He had told his son that in the event the school was closed due to the strike at a time when he cannot get a reliable bus to Nairobi, he could check in to the hotel where they had breakfast and travel the following day. The young man did just that and the father settled the bills via mobile money transfer service.
Thus, even before the education ministry issued a fiat on Friday that schools must close today, the boy was already at home, just like many others from other schools. As such, the parent from Chuka is not the only Kenyan whose child has been bumming at home. Also, he is not the only parent who had to spend more than he anticipated during this term that has been abruptly brought to an end through an Executive edict.
Since the day schools were to open, so much has been said. Economists, politicians, trade unionists, the teachers’ employer and even the Executive had spoken. ‘Netizens’ and childless Kenyans who do not know how cheap education is have been the loudest in advancing theories and half-truths about how the government has money or is broke and should pay, or cannot pay.
Kenya has very many political analysts who know everything except that their heads are in their lower orifices. They know how much money the government wastes or how much it saves. They know how high the taxes will be when the pay rise is effected and how high the rate of inflation will be when the teachers are not paid.
They know very many things, except that most of them are so idiotic that they lack the brains to father a child or carry one; actions which require no intellectual input, anyway.
Then we have the political strategists. If you think the political analysts are dunderheads, then you have not listened to political strategists or read their posts on social media platforms. Their posts keep proving one thing: They have nothing between their ears, and, in fact, that is an understatement.
In all the noises, there is absolutely no word about parents who are stuck with their children at home, yet they had paid school fees for the whole term or year and also delivered all the other requirements.
Yeah, the childless who shout the loudest do not know that there are other things — apart from school fees — that schools require from parents every term. Ideally, nobody has been thinking about parents and what they are supposed to do going forward.
How about those extra expenses that they had not included in their household budgets? There is also the minor issue of “extra” payments they made to schools but have not been utilised by their children. Will they be refunded or they will just be asked for more?
Since the plight of parents is not being addressed, or even considered, by extension, the children are being ignored. All the experts and political analysts and strategists who have been spewing forth theories upon theories of how, why and why not, have not been said a word about children.
How are their rights being infringed upon? How will they cope with their studies, and yes, the syllabus when schools are opened at a date which is not known? What about the quality of education they are getting? So once schools open, are they going to be subjected to some sort of a crash programme to cover for lost time?
What are the anti-social activities that they can easily get themselves in to and jeopardise their future now that they have so much time on their hands? Even as these questions are not being asked, and naturally not being answered, the parental authority never wastes an opportunity to speak about “the youth” and how they should be empowered. I guess empowering them starts with disempowering them.