Parents and learners during Grade 10 admission at Nyambaria High School in Nyamira County. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]
The basic education sector has dominated news headlines consistently in the recent past, especially the weeks following the placement of pioneer senior secondary school students. From the confusion surrounding placement, to the more recent challenge of thousands of students unable to afford the various schools they have been admitted to, the chaos in the basic education sector remains on full display.
The longevity of the focus on the ongoing transition, with its attendant challenges, is arguably unprecedented. Media has done a commendable job sustaining focus on the sector. Courtesy of the attention, a number of highlighted individual cases have attracted desired impact, with people of goodwill stepping in to bail the students out.
Though good, effort by the media is certainly not good enough to address the huge challenge. They are constrained and cannot highlight each of the thousands of cases of parents and guardians who are unable to meet the schooling obligations required of them. It is, however, possible, indeed likely, that the undistracted focus by the media may have had a role in the directive issued by President William Ruto last week.
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Probably jolted by the sustained media attention, the President directed all students to report to school with or without school fees and uniform. Seeing the unwelcome sight of daily reports of deserving children facing the real risk of missing out on education, the pressure on the President must have reached unbearable proportions. He had to find a way of relieving himself of the debilitating pressure even if it simply meant shifting it elsewhere, which is what he did.
The President’s directive made for good politics on the face of it. The only challenge is that when not in harmony with sound policy and realistic facts and figures, good politics is not usually guaranteed of a win. Judging by what ensued after the directive, it seems that the President’s ‘good politics’ did little to address the country’s deep mess in the education sector. If anything, it may have not only served to further reveal the depth of the mess, but also demonstrated how out of depth the government is remedying the situation.
Not long after the President issued the directive, some stranded parents reported that despite the order, they were even incapable of affording transportation cost to the schools. But it was the reported response by some school heads that revealed the folly of injecting a heavy political dose to remedy a deep policy ailment. Aware of what confronts them, some school heads were reported to have refused to admit students who reported without school fees.
The mess in the education sector needs not politically fashioned palliatives, but serious and honest policy reflections and interventions. The government needs to retrace its steps regarding Competency Based Education. Some of the serious challenges being experienced now were not entirely unanticipated. Critics of the system pointed out early on the very challenges being witnessed. There is no shortcut route to Singapore without serious attention to the country’s education system.
Mr Ogutu is a political commentator
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By Alex Ogutu