“Ejuchation! Ejuchation! Ejuchation is like a big tree. Parents ejuchate your children, teachers ejuchate your students.” That was the conclusion of a poem on Education during on one of the many celebrated nursery school graduation ceremonies before they were banned by the government. As you can see the pupil really struggled to pronounce the word ‘education’ but she was oozing a confidence that could tame a lion. Beaming with pride as the morning sun, so I sat and enjoyed the poem reminiscing of my good old days as pupils.
Back then, education was the key to all problems. And the educated ones were the employed specialists, government officials, property owners, opinion leaders, the successful and generally envied. Being educated meant that you were destined for greatness, few things would go wrong in our path. So we carried the school going tag with pride and honor awaiting for the 'flower' education to blossom. But that is before money left the offices, the specialists, the educated and went for the streets.
There it was fascinated by the many personalities, that romanced it. It fell for the greedy, the street smart, the cunning, the hardworking and even hardcore criminals and chose an infidel relationship with the educated. And from the look of things, they might be headed for a divorce.
This hot cold relationship has brought shame to education. Today it is sneered upon because it has failed to deliver on its promise of greatness. Many of its children are out in the cold, unemployed, beggars, drunks, lazy and without hope. But we cannot blame education alone, there are some many other structural barriers like corruption, nepotism, that worked overtime to ensure education does not deliver on its promise.
As if to rub pepper on a clean wound, just recently COVID-19, joined the list of structural barriers. In the wake of the pandemic, the Ministry of Education reported that school are not prepared to handle social distancing in the midst of limited water resources to allow pupils to wash their hands frequently. They asserted ‘A healthy pupil at home is better than a dead one in school’, therefore schools were to remain closed until the COVID-19 curve flattens. Little did they know, that this move would carry with it sizable gains reached after years of great struggle to bridge the gender educational gap as well as retain enrollment numbers in school.
So the sneers continued, since schools are closed, there is that young boy in the village or in town who joined ‘bodaboda’ (motor cycle business) business. He has tasted the sweetness of money earned; he is excited to meet a few needs of his own not forgetting the strength his few hundreds have to woo a poverty-stricken girl. As a result, he has sneered at education, vowed to never walk back to class instead increase his wealth.
On the other hand, we see Akoth whose poverty status forced her to indulge her adolescent feelings and explore what love can do to change her status. Sadly, she is now pregnant. Anger and bitterness have slithered her, the owner of the pregnancy denies them and she has to come to terms that her life will never be the same. She must step up to the parenting role, sneered at education instead looking to make a lemonade out of her situation. Akoth may never land her feet into a school again.
In a different world is Bradley. He hails from a well to do family. But money does not solve all problems. Overtime the family suffered the curse of wealth and is rendered dysfunctional. Mom and dad have little or on control over him, and when he begins to attend sex orgies none of them notices. Soon he discovers that he one of the girls at the parties is HIV positive. He also learns he has landed a similar fate. He retorts, ”What value will education have on me, when I lose my life?” The likes of Bradley, without proper counselling would go through life unmotivated and depressed. Another blow to education.
Don't forget about Wambui, who you will never see in class, but because she can afford a few coins in her pocket, she will graduate with distinction. The scenarios are endless.
These scenarios beg for timely strategies to reinforce the value of education in our society lest we generate a fairly ignorant society that is money minded. Right now we have to understand that there are many other competing interests that would outweigh the need to purse classroom education. All in all I believe that a diploma/high school certificate is the first key to opening a landscape of opportunities for many of us. It is not just about the certificate but gaining meaning knowledge up until your high school education and even better when one advances to diploma.
Our education system needs to cater for people in all the above scenarios and even more. It will be a good start to carry out intensive campaign on the importance of education in our communities. Afterall education is a fundamental right. The more we talk about it the more people buy into this idea and the importance of education is reinforced.
The government should also invest in social workers and attach them to schools to follow up on student attendance and report back the factors that hinder pupils from attending school. Having persons attached to a school would personalize the service and make it easy to follow up on students and reduce drop out. For those wondering about wages, they could be volunteers and employed on contract by the government. These people could be great mentors, counselors, who can really reinforce good values on students and keep them in school. This should be accompanied by stringent policies to keep parents on their toes in keeping their children in school.
In addition, the government should review our education system constantly and make it fluid to accommodate all persons. For example, there are students who cannot continue with school because of pressing issues at home, could be lack of finances, or parental responsibilities as in the case of Akoth above. In such cases, the government should come up community centers to act as learning facilities for those who cannot make it to school as regular students. These centers should provide flexible hours and systems to and even relax rules to accommodate these young people. For example, mothers can come with their children to school, allow for transition to regular schools at the appropriate time etcetera
Finally, continuously invest on programs that keep pupils in school. These have always been there e.g providing lunch programs, sanitary towels, reinforcing co-curriculum activities because besides nurturing talent, it makes talented pupils and even spectators eager for these school games.
At the end of the day, education is an investment that produces lifelong gains. The system should work to accommodate all kinds of students despite their background and challenges. Moreover, it should emphasize on skill development to prepare pupils for the fast-paced workplace.