I think of my first term and year in high school and I recognize how unfair our education system was, still is in some areas. In the National and Provincial schools, you got the brightest students from every top school in the Province or the Nation. The schools that produced top scoring students were mainly in the towns or boarding schools which were rich in learning materials and facilities.
In my high school, I was in class with students who graduated from prestigious schools of our time. Schools like Madaraka Primary in Thika, Kianda School in Nairobi, Tetu Girls in Nyeri, Loreto Msongari and other solid schools of our time. Even the day schools in Nairobi and other big towns were all very well equipped. Their students were well prepared in all academic subjects, athletics and sports programs and they had exposure to other socially beneficial programs. Their Primary Schools were beautiful, well maintained modern clean facilities, well stocked libraries, well equipped laboratories for their science projects all under the guidance of highly qualified teachers. They were well travelled on educational trips and they also came from families that motivated them and invested in their education. They sat the same Certificate of Primary Studies (CPE) like I did in Munyeki.
Consider this, our school had incomplete buildings with wind hauling through the uncovered doors and windows. We did not have a library and the few text books we had were shared by a number of students during the lesson, collected and sent back to the staff room at the end of the lesson. Our teachers were not all qualified, we still had a number of untrained teachers preparing us for our exams. We had no sports equipment and other necessary facilities to enhance our physical, emotional and social skills.
Our parents understood the need of an education but they did not know how to support our efforts. We were their only labor force and they needed us on the farm to help with farming activities. It baffled our parents when we claimed to have homework. My mother always wondered “githi mutiatinda cukuru muthenya mugima kai githomo giki gitariikaga?” translation, you spent the whole day at school, doesnt the learning ever end? That meant we abandoned the homework and did the chores our parents needed done. It was up to us to get to school early the next morning and complete whatever homework we had, before classes began, otherwise we would face corporal punishment from our teachers, a form of punishment that was prevalent in those days. One was lucky to end a school day without being canned for various offenses like being late, talking during class, failing to answer a question correctly, poor hygiene, not completing ones homework or for being disrespectful.
