+1 Daktari, The modern days call for modern ways of disseminating, and indeed if we don't change, change does the changing. Its time the relevant authorities took a serious look at the current systems and how best to adapt to the fast changing systems, otherwise Kenya will keep producing redundant individuals, it will me an endless token ring. Gideon Rop DotConnectAfrica. On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 8:06 PM, <kictanet-request@lists.kictanet.or.ke>wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Education and Our Future (Mark Mwangi) 2. Re: Education and Our Future (william janak)

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Message: 1 Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 19:55:29 +0300 From: Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> To: Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Education and Our Future Message-ID: < CAH5fjcg0TbsGbB1cgOzAecMZ-FzpevzNsNBLiKcRP7fmvVm5BQ@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

The perpetual merry-go-round has to be shorted for it to be fixed. The double intake and the rearrangement of the university semester is a step in the right direction I think. The two years wasted waiting to be admitted to university after sitting for KCSE are the most wasteful period in a students life.

In my opinion J.A.B should also be abolished. The shotgun approach to applying for university is wasteful and drops people int courses they had no interest in pursuing. hence frustration, lethargy and the perpetual struggle to get into 'management' and the few specialists who are actually passionate get overworked. Let people apply personally to each department for the particular course they want to pursue.

The primary school kids I see at 5AM walking to school go through a special kind of hell and only serves to teach suffering and perseverance in return for a grade. No fun no value. Its a precursor to the drab work life devoid of meaning, purpose and well being. Just walk in to most government offices and see how miserable the workers look.

On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

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+1, x100 :-)

Your points sounded very much like a practicing teacher - and I perhaps you still are. As a Mwalimu, I see the hunger Kenyans have for a Certificate rather than for Knowledge. If there was a supermarket legally selling degrees, most of our Universities will be empty. At a lower level (Primary School), I sympathise with my Std 6 son, who comes home everyday with a ton of homework that when compared to my days in school - is just too much and too deep for his level (in other words, they are like cramming Std 7/8 work in order to perfect the same by the time they get there)

And so my question has been, if our Kenyan kids have struggled through this crazy stuff, how comes we dont have so many Nobel Prize Winners? (well apart from our beloved, the late Prof. M. Waangai). Further, if our Kenyan kids have successfully emerged from this heavy academic load at Primary and Secondary levels, how comes they are not innovating at the University levels as much as the Koreans, Indians, Chinese, etc?

The answer ofcourse is rote-learning. In other words, our kids are drilled to PASS but not to THINK. And it does not matter whether they are in Public or Private schools. As long as they must face the same hurdle at the end of the Primary and Secondary School, their target and mechanism to overcome is the same. Drill, Drill, Drill and then pass.

So whereas providing technology to speed up marking of exams maybe good, it would be better to recast the whole philosophy of our Education System. Lets have a framework that allows learners to flow with their talent. We have contradictory examples like the Nameless and Wahu - great Kenyan Musicians who did (am avoiding to say "drilled") the "wrong" degrees. Nameless successfully did his BSc Arch and his wife BSc Mathematics. Both of them then parked their Certificates with their parents and then followed their dreams. If their talents had been identified and natured at the Primary level, we could be looking at many Kenyans who could be the next MJ or Miriam Makebas.

walu.

------------------------------ *From:* "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> *To:* jwalu@yahoo.com *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Friday, October 5, 2012 6:13 PM

*Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Education and Our Future

We must move away from offering exams once a year to two or three times a year. This will enable fast learners to finish, move on and leave space for more learners. Further, examinations should never be a government core activity. This is why we have too many people with certificates but cannot help themselves.

Learning is supposed to be pleasurable such that we can identify talent and nurture it. We have for example doctors without passion or ability but we continue to admit students to medical schools based on grades.

We should never attempt to control education in any way. As Robinson says, children are not goods with sale by date. Learning is a process. Whether it takes you 12 years or 15 years to finish high school, it does not matter. What matters is whether you like what you are doing.

Since we have IT availability throughout the country, we should start continuous assessment such that the final exam will constitute only 40%. This effectively will emasculate thousands of young girls who fall through the cracks simply because they are able to afford sanitary towels and stay in school.

Ndemo.

Sent from my BlackBerry? ------------------------------ *From: * Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> *Date: *Fri, 5 Oct 2012 17:41:38 +0300 *To: *<bitange@jambo.co.ke> *Cc: *KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Subject: *Re: [kictanet] Education and Our Future

I agree... Though what's really worrying at this point is the education bill, that's aiming to control private schools.

On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 5:44 PM, <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:

Ken Robinson says that schools have killed creativity. From the recent Kenya Union of Teachers? (KNUT) strike it was evident that we are lacking in creativity. Three weeks of strike threatened the effectiveness of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) like never before. Why is KNEC linked to KNUT?

In 2010 GCSE candidates took their exam towards the end June and the results were out by August. More than 700,000 students worldwide did mathematics and English while other subjects averaged more than 350,000 candidates. At the same time about 360,000 sat for the KCSE in the same year between October and November but the results came out at the end of February. In other words marking our exams took twice as much as it took the Pearson?s Group (a private entity) to mark GCSE.

GCSE exams are marked by retired teachers as well as other qualified people. It is a contract for which you are paid 800 pounds for the three to four weeks exercise. They heavily use IT to process the exams and some papers are marked by computers.

The company offers a variety of qualifications, including A Levels (GCEs), Edexel (which is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland?s five main examination boards and the BTEC suit of examination qualifications. It also offers work-based learning qualifications ? including BTEC Apprenticeships through Pearson Work Based Learning, awarding over 1.5 million certificates to students around the world every year. Since we benchmark on everything, is it not time we started to benchmark on our education?

Ndemo.

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