Thursday, July 31, 2014
The KCSE Certificate Dilemma
KNUT the famous teachers union is up in arms after the directive by the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kaimenyi to the school heads to release all held certificates to former students. Before we get carried away by the emotions and politicize the whole issue the best way Kenya knows how, it is important to look this issue devoid of our usual style of doing things. This case can best be expressed by the case of Kipchirchir from Eldoret who despite having scored an A- at Nairobi School he could not secure his KCSE and leaving certificate in order to proceed with his studies due to a balance of Ksh 88,000. While the young man had secured a farm job that he was making Ksh 2,500 every month it was unlikely that he would have been able to raise the funds to clear the balance, thanks to the well wishers who stepped in to help.
Kipchirchir’s case can be replicated in the thousands across the country of similar students from poor families and not so poor backgrounds that have been unable to get their certificates despite having been in school for four years. Of course some choose not to collect them after dismal performance and their future endeavors does not need educational certificates. But for those poor students who desperately require the certificates to make a difference in their lives and may be that of their families, it is immoral to keep holding the documents at ransom for a fee that may never be realized. I know of some people who had to wait even for six years before they could manage to raise the fee balances.
In a country like Kenya where teachers’ tab is picked by the tax payers it is difficult to understand why some schools charge so exorbitant fees and yet some are even day schools, with some of the entries in their accounts being school bus fees that have been charged to every student joining the said school for the last 20 years and the bus has never been bought. The directive is timely and makes a lot of social - economic sense because if the school has not been able to realize the money in the last 10 years why keep holding the poor kids certificates? In the real world it is called bad debts and is always written off from the accounts. In fact holding the certificate is like double punishment to the said student as if being poor in itself is not difficult enough. I remember in my days students who had to sneak back in class because going home would not make any difference either. In fact the only thing that could be mortgaged in their homes was the only chicken that laid the eggs that were sold to buy the reading kerosene. These students used to be the best in class. Uhuru’s government would have done better by explaining this directive and arraying the expected fears by the school heads that are already worried of the future students defaulting, if anything they are only enforcing the law. While real free and compulsory basic education to which secondary education is part of is a tall order to achieve for now, doing away with the examination fees is a positive step in the right direction.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
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