Education is the game changer, to use a cliche from business. Education gives society an informed population, it produces skilled labour, prepares young minds for innovation, and predisposes the society for development, among other positives.
It was reported recently that Kenya is dreaming of becoming the African Singapore. Among the things Kenyans identify with Singapore is the development of public infrastructure, housing and industry. But those who want to imitate Singapore always forget the one key investment decision that city-state made: changing the system of education.
Singapore massively invested in education when it initiated plans for socioeconomic transformation. The education system was deliberately planned to prepare learners to solve local problems but also be ready to work beyond the country. The system produced skilled labour that was ready to adapt to new or foreign workplaces. The rest, as they say, is a story worth retelling. Which is what our politicians love to do.
However, we don’t need to reproduce Singapore locally. Kenya just needs to invest more resources in the education sector. As the country transitions to CBC/CBE, more money has to be sent to schools for building classrooms, laboratories, workshops, playgrounds, demonstration farms, innovation centers, accommodation, office spaces, etcetera. Teachers and learners need the right environment, skills and resources to make the schooling experience productive.
However, the transition to CBC/CBE remains a conundrum in many senses. As learners are expected to choose learning ‘pathways’ that will determine their careers, there are hardly the right resources in place in many of the supposed senior schools. How many schools are ready to support sports and arts pathway? How many teachers out there would teach gymnastics, ballet, music, dance, fine arts or videography?
What about schools for directing young Kenyan minds towards science, technology and engineering? How many teachers of computer science are in public schools? How many of those schools have working computers, connected to the internet and with stable power supply? How many of the public schools have innovation workshops where a computer geek kid can work with a classmate in metalwork to design a tool and produce a prototype?
These questions need to be asked. The government and the bureaucrats in charge of education need to be challenged to think more creatively about the school system. Patents need to be provoked to be proactive about the education of their children. The learners need to be informed and encouraged. There is no institution out there that can this task better than the media.
