Thread by @Starlight_Bo

#CBC am I the only one who has a problem with this education system? @wmnjoya complained for ages and no one paid attention. Maybe she was too technical so we missed the point. Mine is very simple, is there an education system that is as discriminatory as this?🤨

I am a product of the pre-mutilated version 8-4-4. I carved wooden swords, made clay pots, made a dozen woolen baby bootees, stitched table clothes, sewed pyjamas and made pilau, all in school; in arts and craft, home science etc.

Every child in Kenya in the 80s and early 90s did this. We did it in school with our teachers, the people paid to instil knowledge and skills as part of the curriculum. Half the time, our parents had no clue what we doing in class but we proudly brought home our finished product

What's interesting is that we did the exact same projects across Kenya in the same manner. It did not matter the socio-ecomomic background. The privileged kids had a new piece of cloth to sew patterns, the rest made do with pieces of old bedsheets but we all made a running stitch

We may have boiled rice while others boiled green maize but we all learnt boiling as a cooking method. We may have knitted with Robin woolen thread from the Indian shop while others undid an old sweater but we all learnt the one-over, one-under kitting pattern

By class 8, we all had all learnt the same skill and we could actually put it to use. I still knit when I have time and I have a whole set of differently coloured threads and sewing needles to boot,; even in my handbag for when a button pops and tries to embarrass me in public!

That was the real 8-4-4. Before they cut out important subjects like art and music, yet I went to school with talented artists like @MisikoAndere and amazing musicians like @CizarinaMusic. They excelled because the subject taught and examined was their talent

Now we have #CBC where the cool kids do assignments on their computers and have portfolios for their achievements. I have no idea what the equivalent of this is for the little one in Nyamwanga village who just saw electricity for the first time last year.

I am even more perplexed at how much #CBC learning parents are doing in the name of assignments with their little ones. I just wanna know, who is the parent for those in boarding school? Who is building cars with the orphans being raised by a 70-yr old granny who can't read?

When the kids from Kilimani go sweeping markets and taking selfies, what is the one in the village equating this assignment to? How does one explain a portfolio to granny? Where does one print all these assignments from in the name of digital learning?

Even more perplexing is when parents come from work at 8pm thanks to Nairobi traffic, to find homework waiting because they must help the pupil catch grasshoppers yet they live in concrete jungle, which can only host cockroaches!

My only ask is, how is #CBC designed to accomodate the discrepancies in society? How does it accomodate a kids to ensure it brings out the best in them, not just the level.of resources they may have at their disposal?

And my last question, did anyone consider that very few parents have capacity to teach????? These assignments that need full parental engagement, what's the plan? And please don't bring the lame excuse that parents must be involved. Parents don’t have a B-Ed or Dip in education

To me, it's kinda like expecting me to open up a mom, remove the baby, close her uterus and ask her to go home and close the skin with the help of her hubby. I may deliver babies but I do not know how to teach. Lanes my friend. Let teachers teach and we or the govt pays fees.

I'vee no idea where the difference is between old 8-4-4 and #CBC content -wise but I know that even if my parent could not read, I would've learnt at school without feeling disadvantaged. A real education system ensures Equity and that all kids have an equal opportunity to excel