The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations did not scare. I was afraid of failing, but they did not scare me. My parents did not go about in a panic that I was about to throw away my life because of my less than my-hair-is-on-fire attitude to the exams. There was pressure to succeed, but it was not an all-or-nothing pressure. If the exams did not go my way, my parents reasoned, trade school or something would always be found. So I wasn't going to be the PhD-holder they both were, but my life would not screech to a halt. I would not die. Eventually, I would be fine.
When I sat for my KCSE exams, my parents drove down from the City to wish me luck. Then we had lunch and they went away, and I went back to the TV hall and watched the rest of the Man U/Arsenal match. They drew.
Today, I have no doubt that children are under tremendous pressure to pass. Parents are under tremendous pressure to see their children succeed. Teachers are under tremendous pressure to see their students succeed. Principals and Headmasters are under tremendous pressure to see their schools produce the best student in the country, the county, the district. All this makes it seem like the KCSE and the KCPE are the be all and end all of life for children; a "bad" certificate is the end of life. Not the end of one experience, but the end of life. There is nothing to live for if the KCSE or the KCPE goes against you.
This must explain to a great degree the motivation to cheat and to profit from cheating. The other factors at play, for sure, include the corruption at the heart of many public institutions,including the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examinations Council, and the corrupted values and morals of the people in general. Parents an their children no longer doubt the iniquity of cutting corners to get ahead or steal an advantage; their faith-leaders, political and business leaders engage in iniquitous corruption without being sanctioned for it but celebrated as "blessed, innovative and bold."
The reports of examination questions being peddled on social media are proof that we have indeed corrupted not just the state, but the nation too. Prosecuting the cheats and their abettors is treating the symptoms. It does not deal with the root causes of the corruption that has now infected children. When I look back at by gentleman's "Cs" from my examinations, I cannot imagine my parents going to the lengths some parents have to help me cheat. They would have been disappointed, no doubt, if I showed little aptitude for anything; but they would have strived to help me figure out what I could do, whether I could be good at it, and whether it would offer me as comfortable a livelihood as theirs.
Not today. Parents know that "papers" are the sine qua non of the job market, of the opportunities of life, even if they are "not genuine." Did not a CEO of a state regulator get accused of forging his university credentials recently? It was the only way he could get the job he did. He is not the only one. A Nairobi parliamentarian managed the remarkable feat of completing a four-year degree in two years. Parents, and their children, watch what their leaders do and follow suit. Cheating is now a form of advancement in the public sector. Parents will buy exams for their children. Their children will use those bought exams to cheat. And they will, in turn, do the same for their children. The cycle will never stop unless it is broken. Someone must bell this cat.
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