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Just Change The Kenya Secondary School Curriculum...


KCSE "As" Celebration
So everyone has been talking about the just recently released KCSE (Kenya Certificate Of Secondary Education) results with so much passion that I decided, well maybe I should also give my opinion. Well you may or not like my opinion on this but lets face it, opinion is like a nose and everyone has it, so let me make use of my nose for now.
The Cabinet Secretary did announce this week the KCSE results that everyone was waiting for and the numbers of As….Oh my God was out of this world. I have a hunch that the high number of "As"  attained by candidates  in KCSE has nothing  to do  with  learning any more but going through many past revision papers as possible to pass exam and get As. During earlier  70s, 80s and 90s,candidates  were learning as that was the core thing. Learning was then a process of acquiring knowledge for use later in life.
Today everything is about passing exam. The "As" attained seems not translating to something tangible as leaders and the elite still troop to Europe for treatment. Can't those with As not become good doctors? Where are the neuro-surgeons from those with As! Where are engineers to build our roads which are being built by Chinese from their village polytechnics and prisons?. We only have looters. I don’t think I can compare the current crop of candidates with say those who went to Form Six decades ago. I must however admit that this being a digital age, "As" galore is the new hype in town.
Gone are the days where getting an A was a celebration in the village and only one person would have gotten the A...I'm not against the many As that candidates are getting, good for them but I just think our education system is eroded. Gone are the days when papers could not get you a good job, you had to be innovative, skilled and posses the ability to do the job well. I did not get an A I got but B+ but I feel like all that I learned in High School has nothing to do with what I'm doing now, I do what I love and I don’t stay in some office, I use my physical brain.
What happened to Art and Craft, or Music or G.H.C or Home Science? The practicability of learning just seemed to have been drained down the drain. I remember we used to enjoy the cooking lessons that we would have in school and eat what we had cooked after that. The best part was that we would get to experiment this at home with our mothers. I'm sorry but I think we are cooking half baked scholars who only know how to cram some formulas but when they are faced with a real life situation they cannot be able to handle.
That Chavakali high school managed to get 300 As defeat the normal curve of learning. A school that had their results cancelled last year to just come up from that to get 300 As is questionable. Listen don’t criticize me yet because if you must know I hail from western Kenya and I would want the best for my local school but then I will call a spade a spade and not a big spoon. Maybe one may argue that the students who repeated last year must have contribute to the high number of As in that school.

But then again, is there some form of penalty for cheating, like some years before one gets to sit for the same exams? Doesn't it also go to say that the A's that were cancelled were genuine? The exams were only cancelled last year because of the so many A's, from a school that had never been on top before, I mean like a few years back. I’m very suspicious because first of all when other schools were up in the streets celebrating their results, Chavakali high school was very quiet, why would they not be happy about the best results they have ever had. Second, if Alliance got 200 plus As and it was the best school in the country, it then beats logic that  Chavakali would  not be the best School in the Country . Someone please help me understand.
Lets just pretend that we are very happy with these results, send our children to the best universities in the country. What next for them Huh!  These children who are used to being spoon fed and cannot stand a practical course. So they use the so called “Mwakenyas” and get a first class degree from the university. They go out to the job market and are called upon to apply the skills that they learned at the University. What happens if they cannot do that, their lives become wasted. Then comes a fellow who did his diploma course based on practicability. They get the job done and even get a promotion for a job well done. It’s a crazy world and I do not know what would be of our generation if we do not correct this now. I just hope that someone out there will listen to my plea and save our children before we become a nation of half baked scholars
Listen, all I’m saying is this; this year’s exams were stolen. I mean the questions were all over social media. There is nothing to be happy about the results. I will honor the school if this year's performance will match what they purport to have achieved over the years. I therefore choose to celebrate the Bs, Cs and Ds out there mainly because I know they worked for it. Period.

By Winkie

Comments

  1. we all know there was massive massive leakages.this A students are the same who go to university for pharmacy, law, medicine, blah blah courses bt end up dropping on the way.they cant manage.so sad.how l pity my to be children if this trend keeps up

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