Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu makes his remarks during the release of the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results on January 20, 2023, at Mitihani House. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NMG
This past week I was driving on one of the highways that leads out of Nairobi. For 20 minutes our car was stuck on the wrong side of the road.
I had been dozing for a few minutes before then. I inquired from the driver what the issue was. It emerged that a vehicle had been involved in an accident on our side of the road.
The cause for the traffic snarl-up was other road users who were stopping by to observe the scene of the accident.
Interestingly as soon as one navigated through the scene, there was no more jam on the rest of the road.
The event reminded me of a discussion I had with a colleague who is a critical stakeholder in the education sector.
On observing the huge traffic jam on the major highways over the Christmas festivities he quipped about the place of mutual social responsibility in society and why teaching children about the place of community is critical to ensuring that they grow up to be responsible citizens.
He opined that economic progress and acquisition of material goods alone would not result in the progress of society unless it is underpinned by a sense of responsibility, caring for others and community service.
When the results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCES) were released this past Friday, as normal celebrations occurred across the country.
Many children had done well. A large number though had not performed as well.
The result was the usual interrogation which occurs after every such season. Questions such as are the results genuine?
What happens to most of the students who score D+ and above? In the process though I stumbled on some conversations on a platform that took me back to the above two incidents.
The discussions boil down to our philosophy of education in Kenya. As a society, we must reflect on the place of education in our socio-economic development and commit to the realisation of that goal.
It cannot be a task left to teachers in a classroom alone. As children go to school, there must be clarity on what we expect the education they receive to translate to.
When a child learns agriculture in school, are we targeting high marks only or are we focusing on helping address the food security situation in Kenya?
If we can change our approach to education away from marks, grades and numbers to quality and impact on society we will be on the correct path.
It is for this reason that our greatest focus as a country must slowly move from KCSE results to Grade 6 CBC results that were released around the same time.
Very few know what those results contain yet they are the future of our education system. It is a focus on quality and not quantity.
We have a collective duty to ensure values and societal responsibility are part of our education system.
This should be judged more by the practical changes we see in society as a result of having gone through an education system and less by the grades, marks and numbers that people get.
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