Ills that erode our values must be locked out of learning institutions

Education is critical for a country’s growth and attainment of its objectives. Kenya’s strategic plans are heavy on achievements which must ride on a proper education system for them to be real and sustainable.

I wish to dwell on the two supportive stakeholders in education, namely the teachers and parents who, of late, have been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. In the background of the impending radical changes in the education system, is the hue and cry from parents and others over high school fees and charges.

First and foremost, we need to be sincere about this outcry. There is no single school that can raise fees arbitrarily without the consent of the parents and approval from the policy makers. I speak as a parent with some knowledge about the parent ministry. I am ashamed by some of us who always make people believe that our teachers are running a numbers game.

Most schools carry out development projects in the form of building classrooms, dormitories and other structural necessities in direct consultation with the parents.

The vote heads from the ministry of education are not enough to cover these projects which are occasioned by the ever expanding need for more capacity in our schools. In most cases, if not all, meetings are called and proposals made. These are then sent to higher authorities for approval of the extra payments.

Another sad and sickening virus creeping into our schools is petty politics and outright ethnicity. I was scandalised to sit through a meeting where workers and teachers were pigeon-holed into tribal cocoons to satisfy charged parents who were demanding transparency.

Granted, Kenya is a huge powder keg of tribes waiting for one tiny spark to blow to smithereens, but we are taking it too far when tribal head counts become part of the agenda in official meetings I don’t see any difference between this and the way animals in a herd smell each other out in the wilderness in order to feel secure.

On the side of teachers, we have issues that keep on cropping up but which need not to, if our schools were run professionally.

A few months ago, the Auditor-General’s report painted a grim picture of the level of financial mismanagement in schools.

IN CAHOOTS

It’s a shame that some teachers in cahoots with their administrators are turning parents into shakedown targets. Pardon my heavy words but how else do you explain forced extra classes which cost an arm and a leg? The ‘force’ used here is subtle, in that if your child is not attending the "voluntary" shilling-draining classes they will magically drop in their studies, forcing you into that slot machine arrangement.

Academic trips are important in learning. They give the learners a first-hand and real life experience, which is the most ideal way of imparting knowledge.

However, this only creates another money-minting venture for a few misguided teachers. How do you explain a trip to Wilson airport from say Thika Road costing slightly less than two thousand, with pupils carrying their own lunch; just to wave at planes fading into the sky?

This is just a classic case of what hawkers do in the parks. They dangle their sweet wares before the child’s face and raise a standoff that more often than not ends up with the parent losing. How voluntary is this?

Teachers need to raise the bar on professionalism due to the fact that they mould all the other professionals.

Teachers’ unions need to focus on the pillars of professionalism by supporting tools of management used in all other professions such as performance contracts, codes of ethics and lifestyle audits.

The ills that are affecting our communities must never be allowed to seep into our schools and poison our future generations. We have a moral duty to protect our schools against corruption, negative ethnicity and all other ills that are eroding our values as a nation.

Dr Kanyi Gioko is a researcher and curriculum Developer at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development; the opinion expressed here is his own; [email protected].