Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, once said, “It is teachers more than any other single group of people who determine that attitudes of society, and who shape the ideas and aspirations of the nation.”
For the nine months that schools were closed in Kenya due to the Covid-19 outbreak that became a pandemic, it was easy to notice the teacher was missing. All and sundry missed the in-person teaching. The return-to-school enthusiasm was unmistakable on January 4.
Now we can say that school is not only a preparation of later life; it is an aspect of life itself.
Paul Donovan, the chief economist with UBS-Global Wealth Management, says the fear of the coronavirus rather than the virus itself is what is impacting economies. It is this fear that must be addressed as the learners settle in once more.
It is not yet perfect for the full return to normal, but we remember the social misery that the sudden break provided: teen and unwanted pregnancies, brutal murders, early marriages, child labour, chaotic homes, drug abuse and general indiscipline.
Home was not home anymore. Parents lived in fear for children, doubts consuming them like the proverbial bushfire. There was a significant social instability across the nation that bordered on the traditional and acceptable social practices falling apart. Hope was diminishing quickly and educational decrees lent to confusion after confusion.
But as the adage holds it, confusion is the beginning of wisdom. It is these confusions that have given birth to what the government through the Ministry of Education is now trying.
The government is now committed to a massive, deliberate effort towards re-establishing with care the physical school-teaching environment within its borders. This seems a radical effort particularly to parents and guardians who might be cautious. It is true that any little exposure to the virus can be deadly on the teachers, students, all staff and the parents.
South Africa reopened and closed down the schools once again. South Korea did the same. The UK had sought to normalise the schooling system with the school communities becoming more vulnerable.
The notion that physical school-teaching environment is by far the right channel for intellectual growth and development of students needed no further experiment. Vigorous attempts at e-learning in a young nation like Kenya revealed the many crevices that require fixing before the country can deliver a believable and impactful e-learning programme.
Attempts at it were met with hue and cry which were reasonable and offered a rich feedback on Kenya’s dreams about online basic education.
Poverty and topographical challenges rested in the path towards its full implementation. Moreover, given basic education is a right, is free (or subsidised) and compulsory, any impediment towards its realisation would amount to injustice. The idea that a student would thus be denied the opportunity to grow and become the best the Creator made him to become would thus be hard to conceive.
It is at school that the learner’s character is better cultivated, their wisdom better guided, and their intellect better strengthened, their gratification purposely delayed for a little while, their artistic talents upgraded for aesthetic experience is a basic need of all men in their universal struggle to add meaning to life, their analytic power enriched, and all that appeared lost gradually regained.
Indeed, to be educated beyond the basic minimum also means to understand something of how to make the adults’ intentions effective in the real world. For example, how can he apply the knowledge to his own life and the nation at large?
School owes it to the young learners to explore the full range of their senses; to appreciate subtle differences they have so that each will strive to find and express the meaning of man and human destiny.
Obviously, staying for too long out of school can revolutionise the learners into strange beings.
It is not, therefore, surprising that, the duration in which the students were kept out of school is a sad reminder of the pandemic and ranks the lowest in the history of education sector across the world.
Desiderus Erasmus who earned a high place in the roll of scholars who saw remarkable flowering of education in Europe thought that lifeless academic system that was the major theme in home-based learning is cruel to the learner.
Schools should, thus, not be treated as casual places where learners pass through flippantly or a sort of a holiday camp. Serious attention ought to be paid to the life of the students to create a sense of national mission.
The very nature of this responsibility should lend interest to every parent, teacher, educators, and the larger government.
Based on this argument, the government should at all times roll out and sustain an extensive and well established network of school supervision to remedy slip-ups and missteps.
Education officials should have their work clearly cut out so that by the end of a student’s school life, he is able to take chances as a young, aggressive vibrant citizen of the world.
To successfully transform, there is a need to set a strong relationship with particularly the communities in which they are located. The very ideas taught at school are sourced from the society and are returned there to sprout and influence, creating a regeneration system.
In a more fragile circumstance such as we find ourselves at the moment, structural changes are required to see what works and what does not. There might be a need to defy conventional practices to go beyond instilling fundamental values and actively start caring for young people’s health.
It’s early to judge, but it is safe for stakeholders to identify the core factors to adapt to, including the safeguards like such as washing hands with soap frequently, wearing face masks, and keeping the right distancing in attempts at making school stay safe.
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