Kenyan children's future on hold
September 16 2015 By Abi Giwa

For Kenyan school children, the future is unpredictable. Having been home since September 1, since the beginning of the new school session, they are uncertain of when they will be returning to classes, because the government and teachers are at loggerheads.
The teachers have asked for the government to effect a court ordered pay rise, but government says there is no money to effect the pay rise. The crisis is fast turning into an equivalent of fire in President Uhuru Kenyatta's hands.
The uncertainty about when the public primary and secondary schools will reopen has been deepened by the announcement from the eduction secretary Jacobs Kaimenyi, who said his office would for now focus on national examinations coming up next month, sidelining the issue of children.
"A large number of students in public primary and secondary schools and other institutions had gone largely untaught since the term began on September 1, due to the teachers’ strike, which started the following day," Prof. Kaimenyi acknowledged in a Daily Nation's report.
President Kenyatta has discountenanced acceding to the court orders that the teachers be paid. Kenyatta is said to be relying on the advise from the treasury department, an advise observers see as ridiculous for its lack of prioritizing children's education and for not considering that disrespecting court orders is criminal.
The education secretary thinks that completing ongoing projects is more important than keeping the children in school or obeying court orders. As it is usual in African countries, the dichotomy between public schools and private school, between children in public school and private schools is already playing out in the crisis.
Children from poor homes attend public schools, while children of the rich go to private schools, because their parents can afford to pay the fees. Most government officials at the level of Kenyatta, the education secretary and senior officials of the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, attend private schools. And when private schools are shut as it is the case in Kenya, only children of the poor, who cannot pay private schools' fees suffer the brunt.
When these poor children are not totally barred from school at the early age due to their parents poverty, when schools suddenly close as it is the case in Kenya today, the insensitivity of leadership to the needs of children, irrespective of parents's financial and material situation, children of the poor bare the repercussion. Of course, a large number of them will likely end up doing something else, instead of returning to school.
It is also one of the reasons endemic corruption is still prevalent in Africa. Everyone wants to cut corners to make as much as possible money, anytime the opportunity presents itself, so as to be able to send their children to private schools, where their children's future education would not be destroyed by persistent and unwanted disruptions.
In the midst of such disruptions, the children from poor homes who may be doing odd jobs to survive will be watching children from affluent homes going to school, at times chauffeur driven to school and go abroad on holidays.
The teachers have asked for the government to effect a court ordered pay rise, but government says there is no money to effect the pay rise. The crisis is fast turning into an equivalent of fire in President Uhuru Kenyatta's hands.
The uncertainty about when the public primary and secondary schools will reopen has been deepened by the announcement from the eduction secretary Jacobs Kaimenyi, who said his office would for now focus on national examinations coming up next month, sidelining the issue of children.
"A large number of students in public primary and secondary schools and other institutions had gone largely untaught since the term began on September 1, due to the teachers’ strike, which started the following day," Prof. Kaimenyi acknowledged in a Daily Nation's report.
President Kenyatta has discountenanced acceding to the court orders that the teachers be paid. Kenyatta is said to be relying on the advise from the treasury department, an advise observers see as ridiculous for its lack of prioritizing children's education and for not considering that disrespecting court orders is criminal.
The education secretary thinks that completing ongoing projects is more important than keeping the children in school or obeying court orders. As it is usual in African countries, the dichotomy between public schools and private school, between children in public school and private schools is already playing out in the crisis.
Children from poor homes attend public schools, while children of the rich go to private schools, because their parents can afford to pay the fees. Most government officials at the level of Kenyatta, the education secretary and senior officials of the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, attend private schools. And when private schools are shut as it is the case in Kenya, only children of the poor, who cannot pay private schools' fees suffer the brunt.
When these poor children are not totally barred from school at the early age due to their parents poverty, when schools suddenly close as it is the case in Kenya today, the insensitivity of leadership to the needs of children, irrespective of parents's financial and material situation, children of the poor bare the repercussion. Of course, a large number of them will likely end up doing something else, instead of returning to school.
It is also one of the reasons endemic corruption is still prevalent in Africa. Everyone wants to cut corners to make as much as possible money, anytime the opportunity presents itself, so as to be able to send their children to private schools, where their children's future education would not be destroyed by persistent and unwanted disruptions.
In the midst of such disruptions, the children from poor homes who may be doing odd jobs to survive will be watching children from affluent homes going to school, at times chauffeur driven to school and go abroad on holidays.