Every child has the right to a free and compulsory basic education and the State is mandated to ensure that the youth access relevant education and training.
That is what the Kenyan Constitution says in Articles 53 and 55 under the Bill of Rights.
According to the Education Act, Kenya’s basic education runs up to Form Four. It is the reason billions of shillings are invested in the 100 percent transition to secondary school.
Under training, through the Kenya Universities and Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), every Form Four graduate should access training.
Indeed, in pushing for 100 percent transition to secondary schools, the programme is subsidised to the extent that day learners should be in school for free for the four years since the government pays the national examination fees.
However, while the supreme law of the land allows flawless access to learning, not all who want to further their basic education have a smooth ride.
What are the hiccups and barriers? Who has erected them in the paths of young people?
Parents, secondary school administrators, even the government are knowingly or unknowingly hurting this level of education that develops the learners’ intellectual buds and expands students’ world view.
Among the school administrators are found those who are greedy, selfish, and lack insight. Apart from the skyrocketing high school fees, such heads collude with business people to create a mess of the learners by setting high prices on must-have items.
In a majority of the national schools, fees is more than Sh100, 000 a year thanks to illegal payments that parents are hoodwinked to endorse.
One of the payments is a ‘commitment fees’ that parents seeking transfers of their children to particular schools produce out of desperation.
It is unbelievable that heads of big schools are said to control huge budgets, fuelling fights for promotions to become a principal.
There is a fundamental issue that school heads fail to understand. Basic Education, as stated in the Constitution, is the right of every child. Again, education is a core part of nation building.
Thus, the pathway should not be deliberately littered with costs and greed that end up slowing down economic growth.
Tom Mboya (TJ) once said that academic themes are founded on a basic sympathy with the national goals.
In the present state of Kenya’s development, the country requires integration, not exclusion from opportunities.
Kenya can only teach and promote national values, which are embedded in the supreme law by practising them, not merely mentioning them out of convenience.
There are just too many unnecessary requirements which though endorsed by parents through coercive devices go against the grain.
The most important thing to the Kenyan child is help him to be what he wants to become. It is unbelievable that a school head can erect hurdles before a learner in the name of extra items for admission and stay in school.
While the head knows what is required to aid achievement of the learner, some conditions are an unsightly heap that openly defies government policy. Principals should facilitate, not frustrate, policy implementation.
There should exist intelligent cooperation for that is the epitome of responsibility.
Why, for example, would the school head collude with uniform manufacturers or distributors to extort parents? It is not uncommon that the school head will insist on school uniform sourced from a particular shop at an extremely high price. Why should uniforms alone cost more than Sh100,000, for example, at a public school?
Again, in the construction of the vital school infrastructure just like in the purchase of school buses, the parents are exploited year in and out.
The money collected goes into the pockets of managers claiming that teachers need motivation, that students need decent uniforms, and that the school wants mercurial results in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), the national examination that was long turned into a monster by rote-learning constituencies.
The adage, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”, has been used by the same head teachers to subvert free thoughts by otherwise independent parents and guardians. It has been taken out of context. It is being used to scare, coerce, and cajole, eyes on the small goal of extra pay for ”hardworking” teachers, which is nothing but corruption.
So, what next? The starting point must be to engage a greater intellectual sobriety in secondary school administration and management. It is this sobriety that may ease the burden on parents and send a student to build his hopes, dreams, and character.
In its hazy form, the current school heads behaviour is tantamount to corruption yet nation building is also norm-building.
There is no better route to training of the youth, as the Constitution says, than the secondary school education. It is such a crucial bridge in the growth of the youth to be treated this unfairly and casually.
It contributes substantially to national development and the well-being of the country. This prime education must not, therefore, be a scarce commodity because of greed.
