Roles of Institutions in Education for National Development in Kenya
(Osano Kute, Leadership and Strategy Adviser)
(Osano Kute, Leadership and Strategy Adviser)
Organised crime is an illegal activity undertaken for the purpose of
gaining profit, power or influence. It involves two or more people and requires
substantial planning and organisation, or a systematic and continuing activity.
Organized crime most typically flourishes when a central government and civil
society is disorganized, weak, absent or un-trusted and involves those who can
lie to the authority for the purpose of creating disorganisation and mistrust
among the people.
The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has been engaged in a systematic
and continuing activity to stop the Kenyan Public from knowing what is going on
with examinations process with bizarre stories emerging every year just before
examination results are announced about how examination cheating thrives with
third parties being blamed and the need for more money to enhance computing
power at the Council. This is obviously organised crime for all intent and
purposes.
From the yearly examination malpractice dramatic stories, officers in
charge of KNEC seem not to know what their mandate is and have spent more time
devising ways of harassing third parties, misleading the public and not
advising the relevant authorities on the right interventions in the education
sector based on candidates’ results for the purposes of equitable national
development.
KNEC officials are always quick to outline how exams are being “stolen”
and condemn candidates for having devised “clever”
ways of cheating in exams by writing answers in sleepers and shirts but they do
not tell people who gave out the question papers in the first place, and of
course, the correct answers. In my opinion, the KNEC officials are the main
perpetrators of examination malpractice since for one to gain access to
examination papers and engage in axam cheating, s/he must be in touch with the
officials setting and keeping examination papers and these are the KNEC
officials themselves.
In a story of 27th February 2012, just before release of KCSE
results, there is an outline of part of a report showing how one Mr Ndege
received KSh 54,595 by selling examination papers and was jailed for one year
without option of fine for engaging in examination malpractice while there is
no mention of what happened to the teacher who bagged KSh 811,490 by engaging
in the same act. The said report also recommends some Kenyatta University
students to be suspended for one year for aiding in examination cheating.
Neither these students nor Kenyatta University are under the management of the KNEC
who should identify and punish the right culprits – their own staff for giving out
the examination papers before hand.
It is worthy to point out that the destiny of a people is moulded
through planning for National Development which is meant to raise the standard
of living of the people by giving high level of prosperity, welfare and
security of the people. This destiny can only be shaped in the classrooms in
the form of education.
Education must therefore be aligned to the National Development Agenda
which invariably relies on accurate short and long term predictions and
projections of the country’s population. It is the results of calculation from
the these predictions and projections that the Ministry of Planning feeds the
Ministry of Education with the number and quality of Human Resource Capital and
the Educational Infrastructure needed for national development and posterity.
The Ministry of Education through the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE)
then develops curriculum in line with the national development agenda. The
curriculum is then delivered by the Ministry of Education through the Teachers
Service Commission (TSC) who are the employers of teachers, while the
mainstream ministry on the other hand provides oversight through schools
inspection to ensure that education policy is adhered to.
At the end of the curriculum delivery, the Kenya National Examination
Council (KNEC) then comes to ascertain if the curriculum developed by KIE was
covered through TSC as required by all the pupils. This is done through testing
and examinations conducted by KNEC at the end of every year. The examination
results are then supposed to be analysed and cross-tabulated to give accurate
insight on the state of education service delivery in every county,
constituency, wards and every school in the country. This must include state of
infrastructure (classrooms, teacher’s houses, other buildings and equipment),
books, teachers for all subjects etc), and a report giving details of what
intervention is appropriate to ensure that the national development agenda in
achieved in the long run.
If the managers of education sector in Kenya were to understand the
above simple logic and the various institutional roles, Kenyans would not be
treated to such bizarre stories of examination cheats every year. Instead, the
Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) would concentrate on designing ways
of making examination simpler so as to find out if the curriculum developed in
line with the national development agenda has been covered. The KNEC would then
give proper feedback on the need for improvement or building and equipping of educational
institutions based on the examination results.
I would expect that during the announcement of KCPE and KCSE results,
the good professors at the helm of the Education Ministries with the help of
able managers at the Kenya National Examination Council, Teachers Service
Commission, Kenya Institute of Education etc, would prepare more meaningful
speeches to deliver to the nation. The speeches will not be about the best or
the worst student, school or county is, but the fact that we as a nation have
achieved our objective in education which is that the right number of (Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Policemen,
Soldiers, Mechanics, Masons, Carpenters, Tailors, Watchmen, Bar attendants,
House helps etc), will be produced by the end of say 12 years from the date
of results announcement, since pupils who were being prepared to take their
rightful positions in national development have indeed, acquired the right
skills necessary to proceed to the next level.
I would expect to hear that pupils in Garsen who did not perform well
due to lack of facilities in schools will not be penalised but be given a
chance to excel by providing those needed facilities with extra tuition being
accorded, so that they can cover the syllabus and not be left behind in education
due to government’s failure. I would expect to hear that the Ministry of
Education has recommended for the immediate upgrading of impassable roads in
Tana and Holla to enable pupils to go to school normally and that electricity
will be installed in all schools in Ikolomani to enable school children to go
for preps just like their counterparts in Muranga.
I would expect to hear that poor performance of pupils due to lack of
math teachers will be no more since more math teachers will be hired and posted
to schools in Nyatike that performed poorly in math in the year 2011. I would
expect to hear that, the boy in primary school, who was found by his teachers
to be good in carpentry and who scored 195/500 and the girl who scored 215/500
in KCPE but was found to be good in art will not be termed as a failures but
would have been prepared over the years through counselling by the teachers to
be given a chance to pursue their talents in a polytechnic or college in
readiness for their contribution to National Development just as the boy or
girl who scored 480/500 will proceed to the other school to be prepared for
their contribution to National Development in whatever capacity they would have
been prepared for by their teachers.
Indeed, this kind of speech from the Minister and Permanent Secretary
during the KCPE and KCSE results announcement, would ensure that development of
the country is uniform and equitable and that all pupils are being prepared to
take their rightful positions in national development for the sake of the
entire country. There will be no failures and no losers as every child would
have been given a chance to cover the syllabus and prepared to play his or her
role in the society based on the inert talent each child has.
Further, the teacher being the engine through which the child is trained
to contribute to National Development must be respected and not ridiculed by
the KNEC officials due to their own failure to devise an effective way of
setting and printing examinations online and using high speed digital printers
closer to the schools in every constituency and ensuring that all papers are
marked in centers in each constituency to avoid the delays occasioned by the
current arrangements which is another source of examination cheating. This kind
of recommendation is what is sometimes referred to by KNEC officials as
futurist and speculative - lack of imagination and innovation indeed.
If as a nation, we accorded respect to our teachers and adequately equiped
them to work including being given proper and commensurate remuneration, we
will reap the full benefit in the long run. We should for example appreciate
that early childhood development is the most important period in the
development of a child therefore recommend that the kindergarten teacher be
remunerated with the highest amount to encourage proper early childhood
development followed by the primary school teacher and the secondary school
teacher in that order.
Giving respect to the teaching profession in general and the teacher in
particular, is of outmost importance. The teacher is the only one who is well
trained and prepared, complete with child psychology skills and who also spends
more than nine (9) months out of 12 in a year with the child, and who can
deduce what the child should grow up to become. The government should therefore
educate everybody to allow the teacher to give advice to our children and
parents alike on careers for the benefit of our nation.
Finally, KNEC and the nation at large should note that life is full of
ups and downs and that is why one can start as a Nurse and end up as Professor
in Medicine, one can be discontinued at the University of Nairobi and come back
to become the chairman of the department that discontinued him and rise to be a
Vice Chancellor of a major university in Kenya. One can also start as a primary
school teacher and get a second chance to rise to be come a professor and
become a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education.
Let us thank God for the talents our children have, appreciate them for
who they are and prepare them for national development so that Kenya can be a,
”Just
and Equitable Society”.
