A preview of Kenya's education and some quiet reflections

The education sector leads in budget allocation but leads in worries too. Most of the money goes to paying wages and salaries. The frequent changes in the distribution of years between primary, secondary, and university mask the issues at the core of our education; I will address a few silently and placidly.

One is the “education inflation.” You need more credentials for the same job. A job that needed a high school education now needs a university degree and other certifications.

Yet technology has made jobs easier. I recently saw a bank advertising for a graduate clerk position. One can argue such a position opens the door for upward mobility.

What of productivity? Is such an employee more productive than, say, a high school graduate? Joblessness resulting from sluggish economic growth means we have lots of men and women with higher credentials willing to work for less.

Economic reality is attenuating expectations. Credential inflation has made education more expensive.  It’s driven further by the belief that one is missing a job because he does not have “enough education,” read degrees.

Two is the popularity of higher degrees like PhD, both earned and honorary. Titles are the new status symbols after other status symbols like cars, family names, and residences got diluted.  It seems even when a job description has a higher status than academic titles, we still need them.

The use of multiple titles is also perplexing. Why Prof Ambassador, Dr Eng or Dr Rev?  Our constitution is very American but very anti- American in the use of titles.  Why don’t Obama, Uhuru or Raila use titles?

 The third is the focus on the number of years in primary, secondary and university instead of the content.  When will AI and mRNA get onto our curriculum?

What of space exploration?  How long does it take for cutting-edge research ideas to trickle down into our curriculum? Is Competence-Based Education (CBE) improving on that?

Are global issues like conflicts in the Middle East or the rise of China in our curriculum? 

Four is silos; there is very little interaction among the different levels of education, even when institutions share fences. Think of Mang’u High School and Kuraiha Primary School or The University of Nairobi and State House Girls.

They are curiously meeting at music and drama festivals nowadays. 

Five is dilution of elitism. Do the top high schools still have the prestige they once had? Could overcrowding be the reason behind brand dilution?

Have they stuck to meritocracy? The market is taking advantage of that dilution with more private secondary schools and adverts for study abroad.

Noted the popularity of foreign credentials, particularly degrees? Noted the stickers for such universities on cars parked in malls? What is our equivalent to US Ivy League universities? Did the University Law of 2012 kill elitism among universities?

Six: access and privatisation. When growing up, academic success was about going to school! Money was never an issue from kindergarten (we did not have them!) to university.

Today, even public schools have layered costs like school uniforms and hidden levies. And they seem to keep mutating.  One question I keep asking is why there is no land compensation to build new schools, like with highways and standard-gauge railway.

An education levy would have been more beneficial to the country in the long run than a housing levy.

Seven, over-centralisation of education management, from examination to staffing. Has CBE reduced the number of exams or centralised them?  Centralisation has reduced competition and led to over-regulation.

Think of the Kenya National Examination Council, Teachers Service Commission, Kenya National Qualifications Authority, the Commission for University Education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority, and Kenya Institute Of Curriculum Development, among others.

The constitutional reforms did not trickle down to school management except for students, who seem to enjoy more freedom and too much care.

 Why are high school students dropped off and picked up by parents or by school buses? Why are STEM teachers underrepresented in school management, e.g. as principals?

Eighth is the level of integration. Why are our schools not like supermarkets and malls where all nationalities and races meet? Why don’t our schools reflect the East African Community, the African Union or even the United Nations? Why do reforms and innovations in education lag behind other sectors? What is an iPhone in schooling?

Nine, a curious one. The private sector has invested big in “sleep,” read hostels. Who invests in the core of education: the labs, workshops, IT (including AI) and exposure like student exchanges, more so in higher education? What of the basic infrastructure and remuneration?

Ten, to what extent do we see education as the route to Singapore or economic growth? How is education integrated into other sectors?

How much do we invest in research and development? Google, Waymo, in vitro fertilisation, Covid -19 vaccine, Liquid Crystal Display, the internet, artificial intelligence, and resulting companies came from university research labs. What other “hot issues in education have I left out?

Let us not forget: education will remain one of the best conveyor belts to heroism.”  Happy Mashujaa Day, my fellow countrymen.