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AFTER TUITION WHAT NEXT? (Part one)


                 I am deeply concerned with the ban on holiday tuition. Holiday tuition as it has been known was introduced when there was need to raise education standards in the country. The extra tuition was in a way, extra classes where, in a country where the number of teachers is extremely low, students who had no teachers for the better part of the term got a chance to get some work done. The evolution has been so drastic that it became a punishment to weak student. In a country that everyone is trying to succeed, the tuition now became a trend to give an extra mileage to students.
                  The ban comes as a shocker to Kenyans who had more than embraced it as a way of life. I have to confess that some students even find it awkward to stay at home. An eleven year old, standard six pupil confessed to me that, she does not really enjoy playing. She was quick to add that she is no longer a kid to play games like kati. This shows just how deep the education inebriation has eaten up into our children.
Some children have even made it a habit to just go to school and do their independent studies. I have noted several students who have formed study groups to just keep their mind occupied. A student, Kevin* said that, “home is so boring, it feels like we have a lot of time to do nothing”  You could see a sense of helplessness as he stared at me with those glassy eyes that seem as if they are staring at nothing in particular. Here is a generation of youth who have been enslaved by books that having none seems like lacking that vital part of diet they so crave for.
              One more thing you note from this young people is uneasiness. There is that feeling of fear, fear that has forever become an important organ of their life. They fear failing. It is evident that, these fellows are or have been convinced that, without hard work they are bound to fail. Failure, which has now been punctuated by a no future. Kenyans have been trained to adore success as godly, tell a Kenyan that, there is Mr. Kenya’s child who got an A in exams, and he/she will look at the child with adoration.
                When the minister of education announces the results of the exceptional students, there is an atmosphere of ecstasy. There is that frenzy that borrows the airwaves as women who have eaten so well and can hardly move a finger, waist wiggle as if they have no bone. It shows just how much fear we implant on the young ones to perform. Now tell me, between the pupil/student and teacher/parent, who calls for the tuition?
            Do not make hasty conclusion that I am supporting holiday tuition here. My point is not just like that of others out there, it is: Holiday tuition could be done with, but it creates an orphan out of a Kenyan pupil. The sudden turn of events has let many reeling with time they had not plan for. You will see, drones of this young people walking or sleeping there way away yet they had to play.
           An average village youth has a pool of resources, rudimentary as they maybe, to help him/her achieve the game part of the play. They have vast fields for practice and play. That is what most of us are quick to believe. Truth be told, those fields are slowly emaciating as people try as much as they can to put every available space to farm.
In towns the situation is devastating, where there was a field, now there is a house. The situation is such that, in suburbs, kids serenade the road with play.  The question therefore is; after tuition, what next ?

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