Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Kenyan academies

You might have noticed the mushrooming of many academies (private schools). Every average Kenyan is struggling to put their children in these schools. For sure they are good schools in the sense that they pass the children well and that is what each parent is looking for. The means to achieve the good grades is currently irrelevant and no parent is concerned about that.
My concern is the premises under which some of these schools operate. Do all of them meet the standards required by the Ministry of education? If not, then how are these schools registered? I have seen schools operating in land less than 50 by 100 feet (1/8 of an acre). I don’t believe that is sufficient for a school. To my surprise these schools do very well as well. I have seen schools with water system, toilets and other basic amenities.
During my school days, there were government inspectors of schools and I thought it is the work of the government to regulate the education systems in both public and private schools. Do we still have these inspectors? Are they doing the work? Can they justify the existence of these funny schools? What has really gone wrong in our systems? Is the ministry on sleep or people are bribing their ways in irregular registration. Someone needs to stop this. The children are getting grades but possible no education at all. What is the true meaning of education?

It is high time that reguration on these type of schools start.

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