Ongeri, national school quotas is the wrong fix

The government decision to introduce a quota system on admissions to national schools finally proves what most of us have been pointing out as wrong with KCPE (Not 8-4-4, but KCPE).

The Ministry has over the decades allowed the private education sector, business people and God knows who else to hijack primary schooling in Kenya. This has created a lopsided system that fleeces parents, stresses kids, and alienates the majority poor leading to the most horrible class system from the grassroots.

Further, this scenario has tilted the balance in the secondary school level, perpetuating the primary school chaos even further.

The Minister for Education Prof Sam Ongeri on Tuesday unveiled a new policy committing more slots in the coveted national secondary schools to candidates from public primary schools. But in this Form One selection shocker, the Ministry is punishing students and parents for its own laziness, deaf of hearing and utter lack of seriousness on the part of its non-existent policies on primary school education.

The positive side is that, they are finally admitting that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. But they are doing this from the wrong end!

First, they need to rein in the "academies." No classes smaller than 35 pupils, no forced repetitions, no registration of weaker students in other schools, and all that nonsense that they pull to maintain lopsided pedigree.

Control the fee structure to level the field for parents, so that parents, even those of modest to medium means do not have to break the bank to send their children to private schools.

Improve - for heaven's sake - public schools, by providing enough qualified teachers, change the teaching module to something practical to implement, easy on the young minds, and creative learning for better results besides the forced cramming which is the norm now in both private and primary schools.

Meanwhile, where do Church-and Mosque-run schools fall?

Of even more concern here, however, is the state of secondary schools. The answer lies in improving the quality of public schools at both primary and secondary level, and with the latter, great expansion in the number of centres of excellence so that we don’t all scramble for a few places in national schools. Let’s spread quality, not mediocrity.

Whatever became of education giants such as St Joseph’s in Githunguri or Khamis Boys High School in Mombasa? They were very good schools and having your child there did not amount to an automatic fail or four wasted years. These and many other schools around the country have over the years deteriorated so much that you'd rather your child went anywhere else. Compare that to Friend’s School Kamusinga, which under good management is now a shining jewel.

If the centres of excellence idea works out as it should be, and the schools are well managed, there would be no need to expend all this hot air about private and public schools.

On the other side, I don’t see the Private Schools Association winning the case against the Ministry of Education. The same argument they are using can be used against them. What makes them think they can use money to gain advantage over others? Isn’t that economic discrimination? And the ministry does not owe them any favours. The slots they are fighting for belong to the ministry, and it has a right to decide what it wants to do with them. And anyway, why can’t the Association make sure its 4,000 private schools become centres of excellence and have public students fight for slots there? They should learn something from the private universities.

Its high time the Ministry of Education educated itself about the goings on in the education sector. Unilateral decisions like the Form One selection decision does not even begin to solve the problem.