Let's be clear about boarding schools.
1. The roots of boarding schools are in the British aristocracy. They're not designed for poor kids who don't have access to education. The need for education by ordinary citizens is supposed to be met by a local public school #tyrannyof3pc
1. The roots of boarding schools are in the British aristocracy. They're not designed for poor kids who don't have access to education. The need for education by ordinary citizens is supposed to be met by a local public school #tyrannyof3pc
2. Boarding schools are designed for the rich, with matrons, dorm masters, cooks, grounds, medical staff, security, housekeeping, etc who take care of the kids' living conditions. Eton, the British school we imitate, has a staff of 800. Only 155 of them are teachers #tyrannyof3pc
3. At the very least, a public boarding school should have a complete kitchen and grounds staff, a nurse, a housekeeper and a live-in dorm master per dorm. Most Kenyan schools cant afford that. That is why students are forced to become the labor to do that work #tyrannyof3pc
4. The role of the dorm master/mistress would be to take care of the students non-academic life. Those are the people who would oversee housekeeping and guide the students in learning basic skills on living together, remember basic hygiene and courtesy #tyrannyof3pc
5. That is what we do at home. Our parents guide us house chores and farm work with us until we can do it independently. But in the Kenyan boarding school, there's no adult guidance in students accomplishing those chores. That's why the tasks become part of bullying #tyrannyof3pc
6. Missionaries did not set up boarding schools in Africa because they wanted to give our "uncivilized" forebears a similar education. It was to remove our parents from the community which missionaries though would pollute the "noble" goals of missionary educators. #tyrannyof3pc
7. But missionaries could not afford the support staff required for the schools. So they turned students into support labor. So thinking teachers made you slash grass, cultivate, clean buildings as a student to teach you not to rely on house help is wishful thinking #tyrannyof3pc
8. The thing we should have done after independence was to leave church boarding schools out of public support, and then build accessible public day schools, and enforce zoning laws so that we have a school every number of kms for every specific number of people #tyrannyof3pc
9. But as we know, the new Kenyan elites wanted to pass on their privileges to their kids. So they kept the schools for whites (Lenana, Kenya High, Nairobi School, Limuru Girls) with the same structure and supported the elite African schools (Alliances, Maseno, etc) #tyrannyof3pc
10. Public schools also have an added advantage. Their computer labs, libraries and community halls can be used for adult education or community events in the evening and holidays, at no charge, since its a public facility. I've expounded on that idea here
11. But as I said, the Kenyan elites were not thinking of the many but of the few. That meant that all schools started to be modeled on the elite ones which were being funded by public coffers. And as we stretched boarding facilities, schools became more dangerous #tyrannyof3pc
12. The greed of the elites didn't stop there. They trashed zoning laws, grabbed land for public facilities. They didn't care when they lived in Runda, shopped in Harrods in London, took their kids to Peponi and could play golf at the club. They had space. We didn't #tyrannyof3pc
13. When we say we need a revolution to reform our education, we're not exaggerating. We would need to get back public land, rebuild schools in a way that they can be used by the public. We need a 10 year reform plan, if we're patient enough to think long term #tyrannyof3pc
14. Until we adults grow up and stop thinking only of the immediate, we will keep this myopic desire to reform public boarding schools which we simply can't afford. And boarding schools will continue to claim more victims. #tyrannyof3pc
