Teachers are some of the inimitable creators in the world, partly with their virtuosity that turns clean-slate heads into tough professionals who show the world the true way.
A teacher is trained to bring hope where there was none to the conclusion that education is the liberator, the equaliser, and the game-changer.
Indeed, teachers are the creators of creators (CoC, if you like) because dyed-in-the-wool innovators, entrepreneurs, and assemblers all pass through the hands of mwalimu (Kiswahili for Teacher).
However, occasionally the world gets treated to untowardness of these heroes and heroines when teachers possibly ignore their learners and expose them to the wrong path.
It has just happened in the just release Form One placement where the Kenyan Education minister has said a huge number of schools did not bother to ensure the Class Eight pupils who sat the national exam KCPE selected their schools of choice. Ouch!
They will now depend on the ministry to find a school for them. Well, a half a loaf is better than no bread but their teachers were unknowingly or knowingly on a mission to deny them the baking power.
A huge bundle of 33,984 pupils from 2,673 schools had no chance to pick the schools they love.
It means when their former classmates will be walking into schools of choice, they instead will be walking into perhaps schools they neither know about nor wanted to join.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu this anomaly means that the learners will miss their dream schools, performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination notwithstanding.
“The results of the above means that many candidates will not get their choices and have to accept that it is not possible to be placed in your dream school,” Mr Machogu said.
Choosing is important to the learners because, among other things, they join institutions that they have heard of as the stars in academics or other talents and were banking on their choices to achieve their dreams through such learning institutions.
That is probably the reason some schools with a capacity of less than 1,000 Form One places have attracted more than 150,000 applications, partly giving the principals a painful headache of admitting this enthusiastic group of future leaders.
Apart from the normal applications, principals of top-performing schools are forced to struggle with a huge swell of walk-in parents and guardians who troop to these institutions in search of their children’s glory.
In this year’s selections, Kabianga High School in Kericho emerged the favourite with 153,078 applications against 768 spaces for Form Ones.
It is followed by Nanyuki High that got 148,827 against 576 slots.
Others on the Best-10 list were Nyandarua High with 137,511 requests but has a capacity for 240 learners, meaning the applications were 572 times the required number.
Pangani got 119,265 for 384; Maseno had 105,504 against 720; Alliance Girls had a salute of 104,765 for 384 while Nakuru High was seventh favourite with 103,909 while it can accommodate 336.
Kapsabet Boys, Mang’u, and Butere Girls attracted 99,542; 98,146; and, 95,550 while each can carry 384; 480, and 768 in that order.
It is this cut-throat competition that should push every teacher to prepare their lieutenants well for the duel that pits them the best of the best from across the country where 1,233,852 sat for the all-important examination.
Well, the government says teachers found culpable will be punished. But that will be too little too late for a missed opportunity and ruined goal just because the one who was responsible for showing the way slept on the job.
This trend must worry the government because a similar case is trending in the picking of higher learning courses.
Only a small number of schools guide Form Four students in choosing their preferred university and TVET courses while still in school, what is known as centre application.
According to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), centre application has many advantages, including access to teachers for guidance since they know the candidates better than anyone else.
As the ministry thinks about punishing the primary school teachers who failed the test of guiding their pupils in Form One selection, Mr Machogu must ensure that this huge number is reduced and eventually the haemorrhage isq stopped with the goal of nurturing Kenya’s talent pool and growing its human capital.
