Seemingly, our Bottom-Up Empowerment Strategy continues gaining traction as the Competency Based Curriculum – CBC becomes entrenched and therefore irreversible. This is confirmed by our continued experiences. While interacting with institutional managers this week, an unusual call was received from a former senior education officer who retired in 2021.
The same has made me revisit issues that may be of concern to every serious education stakeholder. This lady who we initially met at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development – KICD and later as a senior staffer at the MOE headquarters, is overly frustrated by the developments in the education system.
She can’t believe that the education standards have stooped that low once again. My good friend! What are you doing about the return of exam leakage? She wondered.
Me! But, Eva (a presumed name for now), you know exactly what I did those years. Are you suggesting that I should be educating every new Cabinet Secretary on what needs to be done to achieve quality education? Further, can some of them have time to read my publications and professionally embrace the ideas that have been used for transformation of the education system?
Eva: I see your point. But, instead of leaving everything to fate, why not have a discussion with the current KNEC CEO?
Me: I know him. I interacted with him during one education stakeholders’ meeting that happened in KICD sometimes in 2016. I will try to link up with him soon, if he is accessible. I hope he will see sense in my perspectives, if I manage to meet him. However, one wonders how successful one exam body will be in taming a gigantic mess.
Coincidentally, this conversation brings to mind yet some interesting discussions with a disoriented institutional Manager (and follower of this forum) in Nyeri County, about 2 weeks ago. Hers was the 3rd school interacted with upon reaching Karatina, Nyeri County. The three schools had embraced our empowerment strategy a few years ago.
Notably, the moods of this one institutional Manager were of great concern. She indicated how frustrated the education system in Nyeri County has become. “We in Nyeri have been working extremely hard to improve the KCSE standards of performance, but we have started losing hope,” stated the seemingly agitated school principal.
Me: Why lose hope?
Principal: Exam leakage seems to have become so prominent such that one wonders why put so much effort when shortcuts have become the order of things in some counties? Or do you have a solution for that?
Me: Madam Principal! Why have you taken me back so far?
Principal: What do you mean?
Me: In November 2015, I was alerted about the same exam leakage challenge by one principal of a National School based in Nairobi – Here in our school, leaked exam papers arrive 4 days before the formal date, as he revealed.The principal had sought to know whether I have a solution for exam leakage, after he had read Career Dynamics in the 21st Century.
Karatina School Principal: Did you suggest a solution to the national school principal?
Me: No please, but I indicated that I was to think about the matter, since I had just become aware of the same
Principal: Then ?
Me: When 2015 KCSE exam results were released in March 2016, I couldn’t believe that the school system was producing 10,000 As, especially after the revelations of November 2015.
Principal: What did you do?
Me: I created time and walked to the office of the Education Cabinet Secretary, then Dr. Matiang and delivered a copy of Career Dynamics in the 21st Century togetther with a forwarding letter. The letter was released to respective education officers, surprisingly minus the book. The same was withheld by the CS himself, as we later learnt. We had to extend another free copy of the book, upon request by one of the senior officers.
Principal: Did you follow what happened after that?
Me: I eventually visited Dr. Matiang’s office to confirm what became of the first book and whether he found value from the same – the rest is history. As the exams of 2016 progressed, everybody knows the stringent measures put in place to curb exam cheating. Only 241 As were scored in 2016, then 242 in 2017, 315 in 2018, …. the rest still being in the public domain.
Principal: Actually, everybody noticed this new strategy of producing quality graduates.
Me: Indeed, this quality graduates strategy has persisted until recently. The continued denial of exam irregularities by education leadership is of no help. Sudden increase of graduates qualifying to join university from 145,000 to 173,000 in the year 2022 says it all. Evidently, it seems to be a formidable rebirth of mediocrity, which had somehow been tamed.
Principal: So, what do we do to avert this?
Me: Just do what is right without giving up. In any case, never tire doing what is right as rewards will appropriately follow you at the appropriate time ( Galatians 6:9). That should be the spirit.
Principal: You are very fond of quoting Biblical references. Why so?
Me: Please take them seriously. They are not textbook theories. Between 2015 and 2017, I was very frequently engaged by mainstream churches to interpret the ideas shared through “Career Dynamics in the 21st Century.” It is difficult to be a guest speaker in a church on Sunday without having a good grasp of biblical references.
Apparently, the lessons here are suitable for all educationists. In any case, it is seemingly clear why our Bottom-Up Empowerment Strategy borrows widely from scientific, Biblical and philosophical principles, isn’t it?
FYI
Our diary for empowerment sessions in May 2023, continues getting packed. So far, we have 5 schools whose empowerment dates have been confirmed. They are situated in Machakos, Kirinyaga, Tharaka Nthi and Machakos once more, in that order.
The latest development is that after our seminars, participants are now evaluating their new personal perspectives, based on a structured approach. This naturally puts the responsibility of desired results onto their shoulders, as experienced during our last seminar in a Tharaka Nthi Girls’ school, on 17th April 2023.
Your school is equally WELCOME for either CREATING THE FUTURE TODAY SEMINAR for students or RE-CREATING THE FUTURE TODAY SEMINAR for teachers, or both. Equally the follow-up seminar titled SUSTAINABLE LIFE STRATEGY is WELCOME for students who have already enjoyed the first one.
Rgds
Mwangi Wanjumbi (MKIM)
Personal Empowerment Coach,
Speaker/Trainer Consultant on Strategy, Performance, Change Management and Leadership.
Seasoned Trainer of Trainers,
Competency Based Curriculum-CBC Architect,
Author of 1. KICD approved Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, 2. Living Beyond Survival:No More Tiptoeing in Life
- The 21st Century Student:Are You Creating The Future Today? Also, Retired 5 Year Monthly Strategy Columnist (2013 – 2018) for The SME Today Magazine Phone 254722516210
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