Roles of Institutions in Education for National Development in Kenya

Roles of Institutions in Education for National Development in Kenya
(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 27^th 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”.