Children of the rich get better education, good opportunities

About 18km north of Mombasa is Kikambala Primary School. It is punctuated by a continuous contour of gable classrooms made of rusting tin roofs and unfinished cement walls. It was built on a rocky terrain and while there has been an attempt at landscaping, the rocks stand out like bad hair. I am an alumnus.

A majority of the pupils here come from the surrounding community. Their parents are construction workers, maintenance or housekeeping staff at the local hotels, matatu touts, boda boda riders or in a few cases, teachers. There are few role models to learn from and little motivation to pursue education. Few make it to high school and even fewer to university. In my year, I was the only one who went to university.

From my class pool, one became a clinical officer, another draughtsman and a car salesman, matatu drivers and others work in nearby hotels.

I got a sponsorship to attend Aga Khan High School in Mombasa. Built in the 1950s, Aga Khan is an architectural work par excellence. It is situated in the plush Kizingo area. It boasts of 16 wide classrooms, well ventilated with overhead fans. The paint work is always new. It has four laboratories, a library, a computer room, a book store, home-science, drawing and design and geography wings and an ultra-modern hall with a capacity of 1,000.

BIG NAMES

Unlike my primary school, the population here makes for the big names of the middle class in Mombasa. The parents are hotel owners, managers at the port, owners of transport and haulier companies, pastors of mega churches, among others. My classmates came from Ganjoni, Kizingo, Tudor, Mikindani, Nyali and Bamburi – middle-class residential areas of Mombasa. Very few of us came from Likoni, Miritini, Jomvu, Kongowea or Kisauni – low-income areas.

Sixteen years later, Jay, my academic rival, is a doctor in Canada; Swabra, the ever-smiling Swahili lady, lives in London; Wendy, the school model, is in Germany; Nikita, the academic genius is a doctor in Nairobi; Mohammed is an advocate working for a county government; Munni, my one-time crush, holds a master’s in physiotherapy and works for Coast Provincial General Hospital; and Abdalla, the school playboy is in Qatar. With members across the globe, our WhatsApp group literally never sleeps.

Given a choice between my primary schoolmate and the lady with a master’s, the governor would have no difficulty in making a choice for a county executive in charge of health.

It would seem like rich children are better equipped for this competitive world, access quality education, acquire stronger non-cognitive skills and indeed negotiate for better jobs and better pay.

In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that there are only two parenting “philosophies”, and they are divided almost perfectly along class lines: how the wealthy parents raise their children and how the poor parents raise theirs.

ENCOURAGE CHILDREN

The middle-class parents tend to encourage their children, give them a sense of entitlement and teach them to be comfortable around authority. The children are admitted to sports and talent programmes from an early age to develop their skills, are given access to tools like computers and closely monitored. Naturally, the middle-income parent is educated.

Lower-income parents ignore signals of what their children like, are subdued by authority and teach their children not to question the status quo. They pass on the fear and lack of confidence to their children. When their children express interest in sports or the arts, it is seen as a distraction from their studies and is discouraged.

The end result is, therefore, that when these two children apply for the same job, the richer child will always prevail. Not because of favouritism, but because of their horned skills, superior communication abilities, confidence and quality education.

Education exposes parents who were raised in poor backgrounds with little parental support, to a new world of possibilities for their children. It has been said education is the key to eliminating poverty. Yet reality points to quality education as the yardstick of empowerment. Post-colonial Kenya is an example. In the past two regimes, those who controlled the resources and power in Kenya were children of the first Kenyans to get educated.

Odhiambo Ramogi is chief executive officer, Elim Capital.

Twitter: @Odhiamboramogi