8-FO-FO

Lala fo-fo-fo

So if you learnt Kiswahili you know fully well what the saying above means. Actually, if you went through the same system as i did which is the 8-FO-FO system (forget the emission of the last fo). I know the education system that has churned you and I out trained us to cram and emit as exactly but i had to play around with that.

8-FO-FO. So if I have to explain this to you then you have no business reading this but before you leave lemme just tell you that i do not blame you, not entirely anyway,

8-FO-FO is the Kenyan Education System but in all fairness, its refered to as 8-4-4 in official matters. But 8-FO-FO is more appropriate because of the kind of product it produces.  A sleepy product is more like it. The system is not entirely faulty because there is a percentage of the products that actually work but most of the products do not.

Things have to change but before they do, lets go through the motions one more time. 

NURSERY SCHOOL

So this is where it begins but luckily enough, it is not included in the Robot Number Activation sequence code 8-4-4. Which is also quite accurate because it is the only part of the system that is not quite wrong. It takes three years but it remains the most important part of the system yet its the most underrated and ignored part of the system. The fact that the same people who clean us when we go for number 1, 2 and 3 (when its a mixture), replace the scribbling with letters, the mumbling with words and the constant crying to expression are the least paid shows how up side down the system is.

A child, lets call him Edu, is brought to school by either his mother or father and most probably the house girl. He is dressed in oversized clothes, in most cases blue shorts, a shirt and a sweater whose sleeve hangs on one side. This day is usually marred by tears, screams, crawling and clawing, snot running down the nose and loud cries for mummy when little Edu realizes its not the promised Disney world.

I think Nursery school serves its purpose. When its done, we go to Primary school.

PRIMARY SCHOOL

This is the first number on the sequence, the 8. This should take one 8 years to complete before you sit a 3 day exam if you minus all the foreplay, that reduces your intelligence to the scale of 0 - 500. That is the grading system. This is where the rot begins. The primary level is divided into two sections - Lower and Upper. Lower is from Class 1- 4 or 5 while upper primary is Class 6-8.

Little Edu can now speak and write in a total of two languages excluding the mother tongue which is really a birth right.He is still in oversized shorts but a different color, mostly maroon. There are two fundamental changes - the weight of the bag (wtf do they carry in these bags?) and the 'working hours'. This is when Little Edu is given a bag thrice his size and has to wake up at 4 am to make it to school in time.

Please note that Edu is barely ten at the moment but wakes up earlier than the cock that is supposed to crow. That is why school buses are the main sleeping area for this kids hence emphasizing the 8-fo-fo slogan.  The heavy bag has three books for the each of the five subjects he is supposed to learn - so there is Primary mathematics, Fast learner mathematics and Go figure mathematics. 

I am no expert but for a child's healthy development, this is too much pressure, too fast, too early.

Little Edu goes to Upper Primary. He fits in his shorts alright, he can now carry the bag more comfortably and can handle the long hours.He is experiencing changes in his body. He can not speak to girls, he would rather die despite the fact that the teacher has paired them in the seating arrangement. Little Edu has five subjects to excel in but his real interest is in art but the system subscribes Maths, English, Kiswahili, Social Studies and Science. He has to pass and go to the 'Top schools' and this can only happen if he gets 400marks.

Here is where shit hits the fan especially in Class 8 with every nosy relative asking how many marks you are getting and not enough asking your fee balance. Edu is now taller than the mother. He crams the curriculum because in this system, no one cares if you can paint Monalisa up side down with 3D effects, hell no! -We care about how many marks you get in a three day examination that is supposed to reflect on your capabilities and your intelligence but really, it just shows how good you can cram. 

I will admit that there are students that are good in school - what the curriculum offers but there is the other majority that is not. There is an equally important majority that do have seven of the other intelligences that are not catered for by the system. 

Edu did not do that well in the examination but he was in a public school so yaaaaay, he gets a free pass because even the Government knows that studying in their over crowded schools that never have enough of anything, teachers that have to handle the amount of work but are equally lazy (trust me when i say the fact that my niece was still on page 3 of their English text book as per yesterday does not reflect well on them) and very low morale is a disadvantage. But instead of correcting the real problem, why not give Edu a free pass?

So the robot sequence has been initiated and is carried over to secondary school.

SECONDARY SCHOOL

Secondary school is the second number in the Robot sequence. This consists of four years of preparing for another examination that takes a total of one month or three weeks, i am not really sure, i was busy peering through the curtains in the lab to see what was being set up for the practical exams.

This second part is not entirely rot but as my high school Maths teacher used to say, "No room for rot learning". Which is also a summary of our system. Edu has to choose between a very limited numbers of subjects that he wants to study which is not really long enough because its either he does a language or Business Education (to be fair though, there are others like Home Science and bla bla)

Edu plays sports though, he is really good at Basketball but he show cases it to Provincial levels (thats what they called it during my time). He is also very good at Drama. Unfortunately this is a high school as the limited talents exploited in this stage are not really followed up by the system except for very few lucky guys here and there. 

Edu gets to Form four. The cycle repeats itself. The examination fever starts all over again. Edu starts cramming all over again because the examination is supposed t test what you have learnt in four years at the same period regardless of your mental state at the moment. Here is where you are graded between A - E. 
Edu got a B- but has been able to expand his skills to curving and graffiti but who cares?

CAMPUS

So this is the final entry to the code. I think we need a moment of silence for this. This is when the educated robots are released to the world to serve in the same careers, with the same skill set and looking for the same types of jobs with the cliche brown envelopes.

Edu is all grown up. All his relatives are all up in his business asking which campus he is going to. He has to do the 'acceptable' courses so that he can get a white collar job working for some guy who is golfing at Muthaiga and live in a middle class neighbourhood. He therefore does a course in IT (just an example) and gets employed and never paints again.Not to mention that campus is characterised by last minute craming and writing of Mwakenya that summarise four years in a single leaflet (which is the real talent btw) which lead to all theory and no skill set at all.

Campus should be where you maximize on the interests, talents and skills that should have been identified at the beginning but noooooooo, nothing to maximize on. Just completion of the Robot sequence where Edu thinks that since he can speak in English and can barely construct a sentence Kiswahili , he is the most educated. This is where the real certificates of doom are given , and not only in Nairobi Aviation but to every Edu given certification for something that he is not in the least interested in and will just do to make a living is the real doom. (Get it? Like Certificates of doom - ah, forget it)


ROBOT SEQUENCE COMPLETE. 

See, the government should make fundamental changes rather than making silly rules every time they announce results of exams that really do not make sense. 

Here is where all my answers are correct. (Like A, B, C and D)

• Grading system - why would you determine the abilities of a person based on an examination he did at one point of his life? I am not completely brushing off grading but i am saying that grading more than 200'000 people on the same exam is a set up! Its like asking a drunkard to drive with the risk of crushing but we pray that he does not. Grade, yes, but on something that one likes and is actually good at.
• Identify interests and talents - this ensures that we are not all looking for the same jobs because we are diverse, we do not fight for grass because others are better at reaching for twigs. We need a system that works on making a kid reach their full potential rather than reach a certain level in terms of grades.
• Practical learning - i know people who can not write a letter to save their lives. Our system needs to give us actual skills rather than how to expand an algebraic equation. Teach us how to manage finances instead of how to disect a rat. Teach us how to relate to people rather than how to know when Mwelusi decided to go to the well.
• Skills vs Theory - I went to medicine school, i did nursing but i knew of medical students who could not fix an IV line to save a life because they are all theory, no skills. The culture of cramming and passing exams versus learning is what is making ignorant robots with an education graduate everyday.

So basically, the education system is churning out robotic zombies (What? There are hybrid werewolves - i can form whatever creature i want because 8-4-4 can't do nothing about it)

Here are my favorite quotes (I copy pasted them because that is one of the skill sets i got from the system)

Education these days is making youths suffer like mental patients, but no one has anything to say about it because there is no other option to be given.” ― Kaya Carvajal

The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions.” ― Noam Chomsky

“We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation -rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Question is, which are you? A zombie or a robot? I have no idea which one i am. I was never good at exams anyway.

Regards, L.O.P :-)

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