Date Posted: 7/1/2014 5:56:33 AM
Posted By: Wishstar Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 7507
Every one of us complains that the 8-4-4 system of education in Kenya is more exam oriented as opposed to instilling the adequate skills that will help one to improve their lives in one way or another. The fact that the exams account for almost the whole of the learning process in our institutions, various methods which have diluted the learning process have been devised. You may find that a very clever person who has been reading throughout the term or semester and who therefore has more knowledge and skills is outdone with a person who hasn't been serious in his studies throughout the semester.Most of the students nowadays just enjoy themselves for the most part of the semester only to start reading a week or so to exams. This at times goes in their favor but in the end they really don't have the skills required in the real world or the real job market as they only studied to pass their examinations. A part from such occurrences, the education in Kenya has been diluted in the following ways:1. Repetition of examination questions by the tutors.Most of the examination questions are repeated in one way or another, without much twist of the original question. In fact, some questions are copy pasted the way they appear in a previous paper. Some tutors are even too lazy, especially university lecturers, that they decide to repeat the whole examination paper without changing a single question or even value! Students have therefore found it easier that instead of reading and studying through the entire course or syllabus, they'll just revise four or so past papers and they'll be good enough to face the exam. Some people have even gone further as to predicting the examination questions, not only in colleges and universities, but also in primary and secondary schools. Really! How does this help? One can pass the exam without covering the entire course or even knowing what the course entails!2. Cheating in examsMore and more cases of exam cheating are being reported everyday. It is easily detected in primary and secondary schools but the greater part of such cases occurs in institutions of higher learning. College and university students have numerous, with some advanced, methods of cheating. The known methods have been replaced by new methods which cannot be easily detected. For example, placing of class notes strategically in toilets and then during exam period going to the toilet to confirm some answers. Others opt to take photos of the notes on their smartphones while others just prefer the easier method of searching over the internet. Recording of audio clips has also been reported and the most common "mwakenyas." All of this dilute our education and in the end affecting our competency in the job market.3. Impersonation Cases of impersonation are not that many but still they do happen. The penalties of such cases are stiff but people are willing to do it because of the great amounts of cash that come with it. Impersonation in continuous assessment tests is not easily noticed so people are not afraid to venture into it unlike the end of term or semester exams where strict rules are usually observed. Such occur due to all the weight of our education system being put on examinations as opposed to providing the adequate skills that one requires in the real job market and the outside world in general.4. Accessing of examination materialsCorruption is everywhere. Money is everything. Really! To a great extent you really see these statements as true because they really are in the world of today. Money seems like it can do everything for sure but not really everything. What we can however digest easily is that a lot of money, given to a corrupt individual, can buy an examination paper. Some lazy yet rich students have found this loophole in one way or another and decided to exploit it. Isn't it unfair?5. Taking examination questions exactly as they are on book examples.Examples on books are a good way to understand how a particular question can be tackled in an examination. This however does not mean that the example should be lifted exactly as it is on the book and given as an examination question. Once such is realized, then students won't bother themselves on reading a lot more content but would rather find an easier way out and just peruse and cram all the examples and believe me, they will be confident in the exam room as if they have studied the whole syllabus.Looking at how our education has been diluted it is evident that each and everyone of us had a role to play on order to improve our education standards and make it the way it really is supposed to be.
Next: How computers facilitate research in marine sciencePrevious: Benefits of free primary education in Kenya
Get premium membership