MAL 16/17 MARKETING AFRICA ONLINE MAGAZINE | Page 98

rest had to bear the new system .
The dichotomy was extended from pre-primary and we had a mushrooming of secondary schools offering the alternative curriculum and this eventually ended up with having private universities that cater for those who can afford .
This would not have been too much of a problem except that employers now prefer graduates of the private system as they find that they are better prepared for the job market . So what went wrong with our noble Kenyan system ?
To understand this one has to factor in another development that put a strain on our system . Kenya adopted a compulsory free primary education policy . Enrolments in primary schools hit the roof and again we were not ready .
The same entrepreneurs were again called in to build extra classrooms , print extra text and exercise books , supply extra desks , sew extra uniforms , supply more tote bags and headmasters to try and find new funds for exploding classes .
We have not even mentioned the crisis that these changes created to teacher shortages . The whole concept of teacher children ratio was thrown out of the window and we did not have anything near the number of teachers required to cope .
The government needed more teachers but could not afford to pay them , the good teachers migrated to the alternative system , and the teacher training colleges could not get the right calibre trainees so there was a yawning gap .
The enterprising Kenyans came to the rescue and decided to assist the government find the qualified trainees . The printing presses in Kirinyaga Street started to churn out certificates

‘‘ Ochieng was already having a bad day ! It is funny how one tends to remember with clarity insignificant dates of events that happened so long ago . One would think that with all the information that bombards our senses all day long our filters would be more effective .’’

to many failures who were soon absorbed into the teaching profession .
The system was and still is very exam oriented and since the main purpose of the education system in Kenya is to filter students from a huge enrolment of three quarters of a million to a hundred thousand who can be accepted into tertiary institutions there was going to be cut throat competition .
The enterprising spirit of Kenyans was again evident in how they saw business opportunities in the new crisis . Schools discovered that they could charge a premium if they could prove that they could produce superior results .
Soon everyone was clamouring to take their children to schools that consistently produced superior results and those schools reciprocated to the demand by hiking fees and effectively shutting out the poor students even if they had the talent .
The rot had taken hold and it did not take the canny Kenyans long to realise that there was a short cut to good qualifications : Buy them ! The era of leaked exams was with us . The so called good schools now had competition . Parents and teachers colluded to buy exams for their children .
Parents saw their children as an ego boosting appendage to themselves and resolved to push them fraudulently though school and college with the active collaboration of teachers and lecturers . Every qualification now had a price .
Soon this trend was taken to a higher level where now you could get a masters or even a doctorate degree without having ever stepped into a class . The era of the education decadence was now firmly with us and the first person to complain was the employer .
By the time Matiangi was cracking the whip Ochieng estimates that the fraud in the education system had spawned a four to five billion shilling business annually . The reason why it has been so difficult to review this evidently failed system is because it is so lucrative to so many .
What we did not realise as a nation is that we were consigning our beloved Kenya to the gutters . A vision 2030 cannot be achieved on fraud and we cannot emulate the Asian tigers on fake qualifications and we cannot lie to ourselves that we are developing .
Ochieng further estimates that we have lost a whole generation to dubious practices . The last word is we created the problem so we had better find a solution . The world will not be waiting for Kenya to get its act together - Bite the bullet and make the tough decisions .
Kenyans grow up , attacking Matiangi is not the solution , taking responsibility for our children ’ s future is ! History will judge this generation harshly if all we did was to help collapse Kenya and it all starts with the decision you make as a parent . Can we reclaim our integrity and honesty !
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