Kenya can learn from history, turn our education system into one of the best

Early educational reformers in the United States were, at one point, concerned that children were receiving too much schooling.

In 1871, the US commissioner of education even published a report on the “Relation of Education to Insanity”.

Similarly, the pioneer of public education in Massachusetts, Horace Mann, believed that working students too hard would create a “most pernicious influence upon character and habits… Not infrequently is health itself destroyed…”.

The prevailing idea was that effort be balanced by rest, since all work and no play made Jack a dull boy.

Kenneth M. Gold, in School’s In: The History of Summer Education in American Public Schools, writes that reformers strove to reduce the time spent studying to save the mind from injury.

They eliminated Saturday classes, shortened school days and lengthened vacation. Rest, they argued, presented opportunities for strengthening cognitive and analytical skills. It made learners acquire the habit of reflection and forming their own conclusions, independently of authority.

Later, researchers realised that the way in which education was being discussed was wrong. Too much time was spent talking about reducing class size, re-writing curricula, buying every student a laptop and increasing school funding. You would think they were talking about Kenya today.

NOT ENOUGH

In reality, the problem with school was that there was not enough of it. It was not even inequality. One researcher went as far as demonstrating that if children went to school all year round, both poor and wealthy pupils would score higher but similar grades.

Researchers noted that cultures that believe that the route to success lies in rising before dawn did not entertain long vacations. While the school year in the US averaged 180 days, in South Korea, it was 220 days, and in Japan, 243.

When a math test was given to pupils in 12th grade, the Japanese scored 92 per cent and the Americans, 54 per cent. That is the value of going to school 243 days a year.

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains how KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Programme) schools set out to solve this schooling problem.

At KIPP, there are no entrance exams or admission requirements. Students are chosen by lottery. At school, pupils walk quietly in single file. In class they are taught to address anyone talking to them in SSLANT — smile, sit up, listen, ask, nod, and track with your eyes. KIPP sends nearly all its graduates to top American universities.

Malcom gives you the feel of what KIPP students experience, through a student called Marita: “Well, I used to have contacts with one girl from my old school. I would go to her house until mom got back from work, and I would be doing homework. She would never have any homework. And she would say she wanted to go to KIPP, but then she would say that KIPP’s too hard and she didn’t want to go. I would say, ‘Once you get the hang of it, it’s not really that hard’. She told me, ‘It’s because you’re smart’. And I said, ‘Every one of us is smart’. And she was so discouraged because I had a lot of homework, and I told her that a lot of homework helps us to be better in class. And she told me she didn’t want to hear the whole speech. All my friends are now from KIPP.”

KIPP reminds me of a school I know. When I took my child to join Form One, parents with cars parked about a kilometre away from the registration tents. We carried our daughters’ metal boxes weighing 100 kilos on our heads.

A few meters to the tents, was a huge sign, proclaiming: “If you and your daughter are lazy, do not go beyond this point”. Sweating and panting, we were informed that for our daughters, walking was henceforth outlawed and replaced with MBR – movement by running.

Wake-up time was 4am. No visiting days, and no food from home. On clinic days, parents go around meeting teachers of subjects in which their daughters scored below 70 per cent. Daughters do not like to see parents get dressed down on their account, so they work harder with every dress-down. The school is a top performer in national exams and strikes are unheard of.

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