LET’S COLLECTIVELY JOIN HANDS AND BUILD OTHER SCHOOLS WITH NAMES

LET’S COLLECTIVELY JOIN HANDS AND BUILD OTHER SCHOOLS WITH NAMES by Mwalimu James Ngugi.

We all know where our 2022 KCPE candidates are placed courtesy of 22263 technology. While one section of people appreciate where their children have been placed, others are deeply disappointed that their children have been given choices that fall way below their expectations. A good number of candidates and their handlers are still unsure of whether or not their children have been placed in a good school or not.

Photo: Mwalimu James Ngugi.

So, what factors are deterministic in considering a good choice of a school for your child?? Many will rush to say, “Good KCSE results.” Many parents take their children to schools, which they believe will enable their children to score enviable grades in kcse. However, unknown to many parents is that a significant number of children who are taken to those schools with very good academic track records but who have average cognitive abilities end up with extremely poor grades in kcse. In fact, some of them even drop out of these schools mid way through! Worse still, some lose their self-esteem and develop depressive tendencies.

From my experience, many parents are unable to understand their children real abilities. But the worst mistakes that parents make is to seek a school because every other child in the village is seeking that school. Some parents are afraid that if they take their children in some schools without “good names,” then they risk being the laughing stock in the village. They simply succumb to pressure and end up making choices that are not necessarily backed by sound logic! Parents simply fail to understand that performance is individualised and not collective. The mean score, however attractive it is, does not mean all the students have performed exemplary well in a particular cohort.

Sometimes back, I did a write-up on how we can decongest the few schools with “Names” by patiently building other schools with “names” in our villages. Enkii Boys, a school in Loitokitok Subcounty and Rombo Girls School, are examples that I can give of schools that rose from obscurity to good schools within a very short time. Oloirien Boys is a school riding through the same trajectory of emerging from a “nameless” school to a school with a name. It is possible. Just ask Kasaine Jackson, who currently heads the Oloirien Boys team. Curiously, the same teacher was largely associated with building the good name of Enkii Boys. My other point is that when indefatigable and selfless instructional leaders are well supported and patiently, we can create many schools with “Names”

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Now parents, listen here we can choose this year to support our Principals and their teams to create “Names” for the respective institutions that our children have been admitted to! Let’s decongest our good schools so that the principle of “Diseconomies” of Large scale does not affect them negatively. Take your child to a school with a lesser number of learners. Take your child to a school that emphasizes discipline and enriched spiritual guidance. Take your child to a school that is headed by an instructional leader with a track record.

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Having said that, let your child know that it is his or her individual effort that counts and not the name of a school. A child can perform very well regardless of where he or she is schooling if he is focused, disciplined, and understands the concepts of “Individuality” as opposed to “Collectivism”