Towards A Meaningful Education

The debate on the efficacy of our education system has been on and off, with some claiming that it is time wasting and inefficient, while some cling on claiming its superiority to other educational systems. The 8-4-4 system, introduced in the 1980s, has facilitated the education of majority of the Kenyans today. The system has however been the recipient of much criticism, with most people connecting most of the problems affecting us – unemployment, poverty, increase in crime – on the exam oriented nature of the system. It seems that students are more interested in acquiring a grade than an education.
Society seems to place so much pressure on the student by judging them according to the grade one gets in an exam. Take the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCPE) exams; no matter how much a student excels throughout their academic life, the grade one acquires in the end is what determines whether they will go to university. The student is therefore not given a chance to apply what they learn in a practical manner. One cannot ignore the question; what happens to a student who scores a low grade in the final exam? With the academic system being so exam oriented, no wonder innovation is at a low in our youth today. We get students who went to school for 12 years only to come out with no skills to apply, no innovative ideas to introduce to society and no discovery of their ability and true potential. This is because while other educational systems nurture talent and intellectual growth, our system fills the mind with irrelevant information for the sake of passing an exam.
While other systems such as the British IGCSE and the American system seem to produce more informed and exposed minds, our government still ignores the need to revamp our education sector causing our children to be the most stressed generation of youth in a non-war country in Africa and probably the world. A normal student wakes up before 6 in the morning, goes to school and comes back home probably after 6 in the evening, then goes on to do the homework given which in some cases is so much that by the time the student is through, he or she only has less than 5 hours of sleep. The course load is too much, with up to 12 classes being done in secondary school, living no room for personal growth and discovery.
One scholar categorized education into three systems: the first one is the public world, where society sets the standards for success or failure. We want to do something or be someone because society has declared that a certain profession is better than others. This is one reason why at some point in any student’s life they wanted to be a doctor, pilot or engineer. The second system is the private world. This system is made up of the people around us and those that are close to us. These people influence us both positively and negatively. The problem with this system is that most people do things because they were influenced into doing so. A good example is the high number of college students who study to please the people around them. The last system is the deep self system. This involves one owning all his potential, goals and achievements. One does what they want because they know their strength and their purpose.
The sad thing is that our education system falls under the first two categories. Society states that being a doctor is better than being a writer and therefore it is wrong to embrace arts, because sciences are the gateway to grand professions like medicine, pharmacy and engineering. The people who influence us set unrealistic standards that most of the times lead students straight into failure and disillusionment.
The situation is not a hopeless one however. Other educational systems embrace the deep self system which allows students to discover themselves through talent nurturing, reflections and practical applications to whatever they learn in class. It is sad that in my adulthood, a child studying under the British or American systems probably is as exposed as I am in some fields of study.
The solution is not to replace our system with one that does not relate to our context as Kenyans and Africans. We could choose to adopt beneficial aspects of different systems and ensure our children get a worthwhile education where they will no longer be instruments of examination, but instruments of change in our society. Introduction of reflections and subjective exams is a good place in allowing students to grow intellectually. We need an education system that will nurture great leaders and not a generation whose future lies in the writings of a paper.