NGWIRI: Not so fast; boarding schools will in the end wither and die on their own

Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion is a warrior; a combative unionist who has for years successfully resisted all efforts to dislodge him from his perch despite spirited attempts by the government to do so.

Of late, he has muted his voice and instead of addressing press conferences, opted to record his opinions in newspapers directly. Good for him. Sound-bytes may be more impactful, but they have a habit of boomeranging on him.

In an opinion piece early this week, Mr Sossion decided to wade into a subject that has been debated for years without any satisfactory resolution—whether day schools are superior to boarding schools.

His conclusion was that this country would be much better off if it did away with boarding schools for the first 12 years of a child’s education, an argument that would have been convincing had he analysed all the issues pertinent to our situation before jumping to that conclusion.

In a nutshell, Mr Sossion says that boarding schools are a colonial relic which answered the needs of a child in earlier times but no longer do so today. Not only do they alienate the child from society, they also corrupt the child.

Destruction of property

 Such schools, he argues, also breed “unrest, unruliness and perversion” among students. One can see where the man is coming from: most of the strikes resulting in property destruction happen in boarding schools as opposed to day schools. Also, he says, drug abuse, homosexuality and other vices are rampant in such schools, which is why they should be abolished.

This argument is not convincing. More pertinent is the fact that boarding facilities are becoming too expensive for parents especially where such schools could turn out to be dens of criminals.

 However, such generalisations serve no purpose. Boarding schools have nurtured the most brilliant of minds even if a few turned out to be criminals. In every society, you will always find a few rotten eggs. In any case, it is difficult to say for sure what “day scholars” are up to when they are not in school.

The debate as to what is better between boarding and day schools is not going away any time soon, for indeed, there are good points for either. It is true that circumstances have changed in the past five decades and there is no way students can be accommodated in dormitories forever.

 Indeed, through gradual evolution, the public boarding school will either become a relic or the preserve of the elite. However, before it eventually disappears, the boarding school has distinct advantages.

First, students who lodge in school campuses usually turn out to be more disciplined than their counterparts. They live and study under rigid rules and regulations and this grooms them to become responsible individuals as they are forced to make decisions on matters concerning their personal welfare early, while their mates rely on their parents for even small things like laundry.

 Secondly, boarders face fewer distractions. They can devote more time to their studies, unlike day scholars.

Third, co-curricular activities are very important in moulding a well-rounded individual, but most such activities like sports, indoor games, and choir practices usually take place after school, a time when day scholars are worrying about weather or matatu fares.

They also get to watch less TV and have no access to the Internet, the twin technological evils that have ruined the lives of many a youngster.

Boarding kindergartens

Another problem with day scholars is that they have little opportunity to mix and mingle with people of diverse backgrounds and if they come from well-to-do families, they may never get to know what poverty is.

Boarding schools are, in that sense, a great leveler – the students eat the same food, wear the same uniform, sleep in the same dorms, and perform the same chores. This has the effect of snuffing out class snobbery, a good preparation for life in the work place where merit is king.

My contention here is that those calling for the abolition of boarding schools are unnecessarily hasty; there is no reason for such a drastic measure when, in the fullness of time, boarding schools will wither and die because neither parents nor the government can afford to keep them afloat.

However, this will take time. In developed countries where education has been fully devolved to local authorities, transport infrastructure is highly developed and movement between home and school a lot easier.

In conclusion, I have a major quarrel with parents who dump toddlers in boarding kindergartens. The idea that a parent will take a three-year-old to boarding school is revolting. I, for one, cannot see how a child who is less than nine can fit in a boarding school.

Babies are being dumped on teachers at an alarming rate and one day there will be a reckoning.

Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor. [email protected]