Governance talks should factor ethical concerns of cheating in national exams

Within days, 192 children from all of Kenya’s 47 counties will descend on the Safaricom Stadium Kasarani, in Nairobi to discuss the all-important subject of quality education.

The three-day meeting (April 28-30) will mark the third sitting since the National Children Assembly was instituted in Kenya within the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The convention’s four pillars are survival, development, protection and participation, which are echoed in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in the Children’s Act 2001 and in the Constitution.

Ahead of the meeting, this writer interrogated the theme of this year’s assembly — Access to Quality Education for Every Child in Kenya — given that Leadership and Governance is one of the themes lined up for discussion by the children’s representatives, aged up to 17.

A senior assistant director of children’s services in the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services, Ms Judy Ndung’u, noted that while the country had done well on the survival, development, protection pillars of the UNCRC, participation was lagging behind, hence the creation of the children’s assembly modelled on Parliament. Ministry and Unicef officials are among those expected at the meeting.

"SCREAMING WEAPONS"

Following the ban on physical and psychological abuse of young ones under Section 13 (1) of the Children’s Act, caning in schools — and at home — has virtually been wiped out. However, children complain that parents have ignored the bit about psychological abuse, resulting in a new problem: erstwhile cane-wielders have taken to emotional warfare.

It is either nil by mouth, with parents simply ignoring children, or shouting at them.

While Section 20 of the Children’s Act prescribes stiff penalties — “imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand shillings or to both such imprisonment and fine” — for non-compliance with sections 5 to 19 of the law, parents have taken advantage of the fact that yelling at, or ignoring children, leaves no physical marks, and are wielding the silence and screaming weapons on children with abandon.

The result, we are told, is that children have bottled up so much they risk becoming nervous wrecks. In such circumstances, it is a tall order for those manning the toll-free number 116, which has been set up for reporting all forms of child abuse.

The prevailing situation has implications for the theme of this year’s Children Assembly session, “quality education”, in that excellent infrastructure will be lost on wrecked minds.

On Sunday, a parent told me of another parent, whose son abandoned a high-cost modern school in Nairobi, because the learners seem to be a brood from hell. How else do you describe a situation where juniors are systematically gang-raped by their seniors as the school administration looks the other way?

SOBERING CONCERNS

Which raises the question: will the children who are accompanied by male and female chaperons, raise these sobering concerns at their assembly? How do the various school administrations instil ethics and morality in impressionable minds before they “go into the words”?

A peek at the programme indicates that the assembly will be preceded by elections presided over by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

While involving the IEBC is meant to help children appreciate, at an early age, the norms of participatory governance, it will be remiss of the assembly not to address serious issues of children’s moral welfare as mentioned above, as well as the equally serious ethical concerns of cheating in national exams.

During the interview, Ms Ndung’u told this writer that, indeed, leadership and governance were on the charts. But on following up with the preparatory committee member whose organisation is handling the subject, she vaguely pointed out that “governance is related to elections and leadership which the assembly is addressing”.

Now, if cheating in exams, which is mirrored in rampant corruption that permeates Kenya’s entire social fibre, is not made a standing topic at the children’s annual talk-shop, then the nation is in deep trouble as regards the quality of our future leadership.

Ms Kweyu is Revise Editor, Daily Nation. ([email protected])