👫Not many can forget the education we had in schools in the 70s. Those were the years of CPE. Yes, CPE, the 3 subject class 7 examination. The three subjects in our schools were Mathematics, English, and General Paper whose total points were 36. The summit score in each subject was 12 points.
😃Both schools and classes managements were simple. There was no commercial tuition in schools as it is today. Teachers were active and voluntary. They could voluntarily ask pupils, especially class 7 to report to school as early as 6 am for free remedial work. The other classes could report mostly at fifteen minutes to eight in the morning. Today the schools, including pre-schools, report to school at 6 am with cash for tuition at hand. Failure to comply amounts to suspension !👽
👋The three subjects were managed comfortably, by the teachers, parents, and pupils. Teachers had less workload to plan, teach, examine, and mark. Pupils had few subjects to learn, be tested, and revise. This promotes the joy of going to school daily.
With only 3 examinable subjects, there was enough time for recreation and socializing among teachers, among pupils, and teachers and pupils in schools. Most of the afternoons were spent on creative work. Arts and crafts were emphasized and commercialized in schools. Cooking sticks, walking sticks, blooms, necklaces, mats, grass-made mattresses and pillows, pots, bricks, combs, brushes, slippers, and 'rungus' were made by pupils in schools and sold🙆. Rulers were rarely imported from China and England as it is today.
😊School-going and learning were not torturing. It was comfortably done. No mountains of books were carried by pupils to and from schools. Today, preschool pupils carry more than seven textbooks and ten 60-page exercise books to school in the morning and back home after school. Apart from the books, they are subjected to monthly examinations. The rest primary classes' workload in our schools is not admirable and borders torture.
The discipline in schools was good. Teachers were respected by both the pupils and the general community. Corporal punishment was practised professionally in schools. No injuries were inflicted on the pupils. I admire those school days. The good days of perfection✌. Is it reversible if we go back?
The big question and argument is, should children be subjected to struggles for them to succeed? Should they bury their small heads in books the whole day to succeed to join secondary schools? Do our leaders travel to countries such as England for education management benchmarking? I am told that there are no school uniforms in most European, American, and Asian schools😌. Is this applicable in our schools here?
If the commercial factor of the items that were made by the pupils, had a good follow-up, some of the learners would have continued to earn in secondary schools and beyond. It would be possible for them to pay their school fees from their handwork. Unfortunately, there was no follow-up of arts and crafts, from primary schools to secondary schools, and beyond😞. If there was a follow-up, then, university students could not need loans from the Higher Education Loans Board. Handwork would pay. This handwork could create self-employment, after school, and alleviate poverty in the country as a whole. Note, this work was done by both girls and boys in all primary schools.
The transition from 7-4-2-3 to 8-4-4 was chaotic, expensive, lack of personnel, and full of down looking. The 7-4-2-3 graduates despised the 8-4-4 students and termed them half-baked in a zero system. 8minus4minus4 is always zero! 😓
🙌The then intended objective of this system was to industrialize Kenya. This could succeed, had there been proper school management with adequate expertise in the absence of corruption. There were expensive tools that were bought by the Kenyan government, for all the public schools countrywide. These tools were meant to make the education system successful in our schools🙋.
Make the education system a success indeed! This was a good opportunity for the schools' management personnel to make money🙍. Good, evil money, through theft and corruption in schools. Sewing machines were stolen and sold. Some found their way to headteachers' and teachers' homes. Carpentry tools were not spared. Hammers, saws, planes, chisels, tape measures, smoothers, nails, and many others did not benefit the intended pupils in schools🙈.
🙅Subjects in this system were just a mockery and an unbearable burden to Wanjiku in schools. With more than 10 school subjects, pupils were expected to learn and pass with flying colours in KCPE. The school timetables were a big burden, to prepare, and format accordingly. It would take a whole term to complete them🙍!
A burden indeed😱! Does anyone remember ACM, HOSBED, and GHCRE in primary schools? These combinations were examined as one subject. The complicated part was when some of them were taught by four different teachers! GHCRE was Geography, History, Civics, and Religious Education. These could be handed by four other teachers where pupils had a burden to understand the different teachers equally😲.
🙅I do not remember when the 8:4:4 education system changed from being a practical based system to an examination-based system. A spirit of examination competition invaded all the schools in Kenya. Every teacher embarked on how to improve subject mean scores in the school ignoring individual performance in pupils.
👀Examination bodies mushroomed in all parts of the country. They set, print, and sell examinations to schools. Schools get the examination cash from parents. The schools competed to which school has done more exams than others. Some schools could do four exams in a week. No time was spared for revision. Pupils in these schools were overworked and became examination robots👺!
Is a good Kenyan education system in our schools around the corner? Time Will Tell Soon👀👂
Well, having read the article above, may you read
the following work by the same author.
- Smart score Grade 1 Kiswahili
section by Longhorn publishers -Found in all bookshops in Kenya👦👧.
- Violence In Kenya-Untold Basic
Facts (ebook) by Smashwords🙏🙊.
- Devilry(ebook) by Smashwords😏😒
This is nostalgic. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, brother.
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