Nothing can frustrate a brilliant mind the way school does
What you need to know:
- Education in my generation was ‘actual’. We were rebellious, challenged everything and wanted to know the whys of things, here and now.
- Ten years ago anyone could have described Facebook like a jail, where one has a profile picture, sits around all day writing on walls, and gets poked by guys one does not really know.
- The Education CS, Prof Kaimenyi, made the right decision when he banned ranking in schools, but he simply treated the symptom of a bigger problem.
The constant struggle in our education system is how to raise standards without jeopardising equality.
Both good and bad schools make it to the headlines when something unusual happens. Yet what may appear to be abnormal in Nairobi might well be outstandingly good in a remote location where facilities, teachers and parents are overstretched.
Measuring education is not easy. We are usually trying to measure the immeasurable, a combination of character and knowledge.
We cannot measure character and virtue. If we did, perhaps then the best school should be the one with no alumni in jail ten or twenty years after completion.
MUSIC AND CARPENTRY
Yet this will never be an objective parameter for as long as the justice system is dysfunctional and sends mostly the poor and the petty to gaols.
Modern education resolved the insurmountable task of measuring quality and intelligence in a very simplistic manner. Secondary education in particular was reduced to easily quantifiable science subjects, such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and English.
Our excessive focus on these otherwise important subjects pushed us to define every young mind’s intelligence by the ability to perform in science, and pigeonhole them accordingly into clever, not-so-clever and dumb.
As a consequence societies were deprived of their cultural context and the survival and transmission of values.
The schools’ mad race to get into the top-ten list jeopardised a good number of avenues for fostering excellence, in drama, sports, music, history, civic education, and even hands-on trades such as carpentry and electricity. I sometimes say, jokingly, that the right side of the brain has nothing left, and the left side has nothing right.
This approach was made even thornier by generational change. Now, young minds are wired differently, and our educational system is being left behind by amazing technological advances.
'CALL OF DUTY'
Education in the days of our parents was ‘virtuous’. It was based on good old time-tested habits. It was anchored in the past and no one had a right to question it.
The teacher would say, ‘this is so because I say so,’ and any challenge would be met and resolved with the cane.
Education in my generation was ‘actual’. We were rebellious, challenged everything and wanted to know the whys of things, here and now.
The old seemed to be bad and questionable and only the present mattered. We were pragmatic and superficial, interested in immediate gratification and quick solutions.
Education in today’s upcoming generation is ‘virtual’. Kids are not really interested in the present but are constantly living in the future, in the virtual world, where anything is possible.
Their sport dreams come true in FIFA15, their frustrations are healed in Call of Duty, their family reunions are hosted by Facebook, their conversations are carried by WhatsApp and their memories are captured on Instagram.
In fact, ten years ago anyone could have described Facebook like a jail, where one has a profile picture, sits around all day writing on walls, and gets poked by guys one does not really know.
ALWAYS APOLOGISING
Perhaps this is why some say that behind every successful student, there is a deactivated Facebook account. I sometimes wonder what Facebook employees do to waste their time at work.
The Education CS, Prof Kaimenyi, made the right decision when he banned ranking in schools, but he simply treated the symptom of a bigger problem. We need to deal with the sickness, which is an outdated education system that frustrates bright young minds that are ill-disposed towards sciences, but are amazingly bright and talented in many other areas.
Science is just a small part of our lives, after all.
Something needs to be done. We can keep apologising or saying sorry to all those bright, talented boys and girls who are left out of the mainstream education system, but we should remember ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I apologise’ don't mean the same thing when you are at a funeral, and the national exam is often their professional funeral.
Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected], Twitter: @lgfranceschi
