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Opinion

Fresh Presidential elections reveal the deplorable State of public schools

BY David Indeje · October 27, 2017 10:10 am

In Kenya, primary schools are commonly used by the electoral commission for the electorate to cast votes because every community has one.

However, the intriguing factor besides the elections. What is rarely seen is the deplorable state of the school’s infrastructure spread across the nation.

 

Often, we are keen to know the performance indicators of a region. How many children got 400 marks and above? How many from public schools? How many from private academies? How many pupils got over 350- 400 marks and equally how many of those from public schools and how many from the private academies?

How did the boys and girls fare in the category of over 400 marks and over 350- 400 marks? How many pupils qualified to go to National schools? How many to Provincial schools? How many to District schools and how many though qualified may end up missing Form One and vice verse for the secondary schools.

Education remains the only potent instrument of transforming the socio-economic conditions and its a wake-up call to also start interrogating the infrastructure of these schools. How conducive are they?

The shocking physical state of educational facilities is that they are invariably dirty, unkempt, stinking, falling apart, leaking, and congested.

 

This not only affects the quantity and quality of education.  This is because the low public investment and spending in higher education has precipitated further declines in quality and relevance of education.

“We have paid too much time worrying about enrollment in school, retention, and completion of primary school, and too little attention to learning outcomes,” notes Alex Awiti, Director of the East African Institute of the Aga Khan.

According to Awiti, “Education must more than a constitutional obligation of the state or some SDG commitment. Education must be inalienable that is inextricably bound with learning. I argue that the national conversation must move beyond a focus on inputs to expand access to public and private investments that provide the conditions, which support learning.”

Read: Laptops From China For Standard One Pupils: Is The System Ready? 

The numerous pictures that were shared online is a bold statement of how the Government and the local leaders are out of touch with the ordinary Kenyan and how cheaply they value or at the worst place no value to the lives of the people of the region.

Just like health, how well a people are educated, is the first measure of that country’s self-esteem and priorities on development.

 

David Indeje is a writer and editor, with interests on how technology is changing journalism, government, Health, and Gender Development stories are his passion. Follow on Twitter @David_IndejeDavid can be reached on: (020) 528 0222 / Email: info@sokodirectory.com

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