Education is a rich treasure. Right education gives learners the tools to dream of a more livable world and how they will leave it better.
This requires a revolution of thought. A progressive society, indeed one that is kind to the young people, models them into the best possible human beings.
When children are prepared this way, they return the very kindness, making it important for them to note that the future turns on whether they pass examinations or not. Therefore, a child ought to establish a positive self-identity by asking self: “Who am I in relation to the society?”
Asking such a question should occupy the faculties of a sizable number of people because life is not purely about academic attainments and aspirations. A Kenyan child requires an inter-mix of educational identity, plans and hopes for success. There is a need for parents to realise that it is dangerous to push young people into a friendless competition and end up a disillusioned adult.
Moreover, we should not prize education at the expense of life. Intense competition is one of the many reasons parents are insisting that their children remain in schools the government classifies as risky based on weaker built structures.
Max Weber once noted that in all experiences, there is no stronger means of breeding traits than through the necessity of holding one’s own in the circle of associates. Parents have pushed their children to the corner of cut-throat competition, believing a private academy is more promising than a government sponsored school. A worrying conclusion because teachers are trained at the same colleges or universities.
Of course, private initiatives are welcome. But there is a need for parents to reconcile their paths to success with what is convenient to them on the one hand, and what would be safe, healthy, and based on richer perspective for their children on the other.
While Kenyans should be concerned about character traits, this has been pushed to the back burner if not rejected outright.
And whereas the society seems to reward concentration and narrow preoccupation with examination, the question should be about justice for children. Ideally, are Kenyan schools producing students capable of asking questions and challenging the status quo?
Punctuated by reward for certain behaviours, it appears parents, just like their sons and daughters, are drowning in self-doubt, hence no questioning, or challenging lest they meet unknown obstruction. This is a typical reactionary behaviour which conforms to the prevalent attitude of false advantage in the process of cut-throat competition. In its most refined form, there is lack of evidence that the private schools are better.
There is a strong relationship between the future of children and that of that of a country. Education should, in its purest form, prepare children to channel their energies and how they spend their time. Competition for its own sake will end up with people praising educational attainments with little effect on the supposed achievers and the entire country.
