The 2022 KCSE results are now in the public domain. Personally, I am still coming to terms with the outcome. Why? The results of the 2021 KCSE exams produced about 145,000 students, who qualified to pursue university education, after attaining the C+ grade. The 2022 exams produced about 173,000 students qualifying to join university.
One wonders how the improvement shot by close to 28,000 (19% ) students, compared to previous experiences. Mind you our interactions with institutional managers in the better part of 2022, indicated that exam leakage had achieved new dimensions. during the 2021 exams. Should such leakage be treated as normal when efficacy of the education system is what determines the progress or otherwise of any nation? Sadly, politicizing the education system can be the highest level of primitivity in any part of the world.
Meanwhile, on Friday 13th January 2023, one newspaper carried out two stories that attracted my attention. On one hand was an article titled “University Education Losing Value: it’s time to review our priorities.” The writer illustrated how people still make money without ever stepping into universities. This was compared with the continued joblessness and frustrations of those who pursue university education.
Eventually, it is perceived as a matter of revisiting priorities depending on the objectives of those pursuing university education.
The second article revealed the experiences of 28 year old Mercy, who pursued a bachelor of science degree specialising in Agricultural Economics. After graduation, it reached a stage where job search was no longer worth any efforts. Mercy ventured into weaving of baskets, a skill she had learnt from her mother.
Today, Mercy’s business which has employed locals around her rural home, has continued attracting customers from far and wide and is now targeting the international market. Formal employment despite the university education is no longer in Mercy’s mind. Ironically, many of those who know of Mercy’s university education do not see the sense of her eventual business choice, after all the education efforts. Why refer to this information, already in the public domain?
First, university education has not lost value. Instead, it is the pursuant who makes the wrong choices and ends up losing strategic direction. Further, those in charge of university education, may still be stuck in the paradigms of the 20th Century. It is solely about pursuing education to eventually secure lucrative jobs.
Without venturing into the intricate process of making the right choices, it is important to reflect on some critical considerations. In this 21st Century, the empowerment process of each of us should be based on intrinsic factors, rather the extrinsic ones largely associated with the 20th Century. Those who follow these intrinsic factors end up largely being influenced by the value they are likely to add in the marketplace, and eventually attracting the deserving rewards.
The main challenge is that the mentalities of the 20th Century rarely link the grades acquired from school with the likely value addition, after the education is acquired. Largely, A students become spoilt of choices with regard to university education. Others are spread to different areas of empowerment based on available opportunities.
Eventually, only a small percentage of students end up being appropriately aligned. Such students never struggle to secure jobs. Instead, they are easily secured in the organizations they had sought attachments, while still in school. Alternatively, they ably create their own jobs without undergoing unnecessary struggles..
The case of Mercy leads to another perspective. If the technical secondary education that was abandoned some years ago, was still in place, could Mercy have pursued a course in Agricultural Economics? Perhaps not. She could most likely have discovered her interest in the work of her hands and maybe pursue the same at earlier stages.
Probably, Mercy could have ended up pursuing university education that is aligned to those technically oriented interests. Ideally, that could have led. her into focusing towards blue collar jobs, right from the beginning.
The good news is that alignment of those undergoing empowerment through the Competency Based Curriculum – CBC is what is on focus. However, the desired achievements can only happen if the implementation of the CBC is perfected, isn’t it?
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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