News & Comment
Education Reform is Cosmetic Coloration in a Destructive Stinking Ideology

News:

Cabinet Secretary for Education Dr. Fred Matiang'i officially announced the results for Kenya National Exams for Secondary schools (KSCE) for the year 2016. Only 141 candidates scored the mark of ‘A’ compared to 2,636 candidates of the previous year 2015 who scored the same mark! While more than 88,900 candidates scored above the mark of ‘C+’. At the same time over 33,000 candidates failed the exams by scoring the mark of ‘E’. These results were shocking especially for famous schools like the Alliance, Moi, and Maseno. For instance this year’s 2016 exams, only 25 candidates from Alliance managed to score the mark of ‘A’ compared to the previous year (2015) where 207 candidates attained the same mark. As for Maseno, it was 137 candidates but in this year 2016 not one candidate attained the mark of an ‘A’!

Comment:

The 2016 results are a stark contrast to the results of 2015! Indeed they have created a huge debate among Kenyans while the majority of them are praising the Cabinet Secretary for bringing certain reforms in the education sector. From stealing of exams, forged documents and study guidelines, Matiang'i is mentioned by the majority that he is a performer.

Even if Matiang'i has been able to sway the hearts of the people but it is not true that he has resolved the problems facing the education sector which include poor standards of education, poor environment for schools and perennial teachers’ strikes calling for their salaries increment. All these are signs of the evils of the invalid capitalist ideology which is providing its services as favors only and not as its responsibility.

These results that have shocked many is an indication that the institution of managing the exams, Kenya National Exams Council (KNEC), was itself the source of the exams leakage and this is confirmed when its body was abolished and replaced with a new one. Most schools were involved in exam cheating to an extent they emerged victors in majority with high flying marks which when compared to last year they could not even attain the same even in a quarter the numbers of marks they had!

Most students were highly expecting to get hold of the exams’ papers through dubious means to an extent some of them were not even heeding what their teachers were teaching them. Because they were certain they will engage in exams malpractices. Also the parents were working in cahoots with exam stealing cartels to ensure their children score the highest marks by all means possible so long as they pass their exams! This confirms openly how shallow the viewpoint of capitalism is when it looks at education as the sole objective to attain good life!  Since Kenya like any country in the world which is anchored on the invalid capitalist ideology and its stinking systems including democracy; it is not anticipated that it will realize any meaningful and long lasting solutions to the education sector. That is what is contributing to students, teachers, parents and exam stealing cartels to co-exist to guarantee those who are able and who are few to pass their exams by parting with huge sums of money through questionable channels!

The Kenyan education curriculum famously known as the 8-4-4 has perturbed the principals from the top notch schools who are dependent on being announced as the best performing schools to be their advantage in advertising their schools and which lead to drawing a lot of students and charging them exorbitantly in the name of guaranteed passing of their students! Also this ideology has led to the desperation of many and is breeding people with no genuine skills but people who are chasing documents only. This situation has caused many students who had attained good marks in the year 2015 to join universities instead they chose to repeat in order to get higher marks and succeed highly! This was informed by the fact that if 2015 one got just some few leaked exams; how many marks will he get in 2016 if he gets all the leaked exams after fully preparing for the leaked exams by a hundred percent!

Not only the Kenyan community but the whole world must wake up and realize that quality education is that which its policy is anchored on knowing the Creator of creation and in what way to serve the Creator to an extent your life in this world is to seek the pleasure of the Creator and ultimately take you to paradise in the hereafter. That policy is possible under the Khilafah "Caliphate" based on the Prophetic Methodology which shall implement the Quran and Sunnah.   

Written for the Central Media of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Ali Nassor – Kenya