ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES 'JACK' A DULL BOY!?

TUESDAY'S DAILY NATION sported an Article by one Mr. Kennedy Buhere, a Communications Officer in the Ministry of EDUCATION, Science and Technology.     He writes :-  'The Ministry of Education BANNED mock examinations in September 2001 following recommendations in the report of the Task Forum on Student Discipline and Unrest in Secondary School.'
TODAY Kenya is still experiencing incidents of 'student unrest' and even in the last few days yet another Boys Boarding School had its dormitories set on fire by its own students at night, with two deaths and many casualties.      It is interesting to also observe that in my own area Schools are still taking part in Mock Examinations - one finished just last week - in Secondary Schools, and that there has in fact been an increase in extra tuition and setting of SET, SAT, and CAT tests throughout the year.     My own grandson, having just now concluded his Mock KCSE and hoping for just a few days holiday will return to School  to sit yet another internal examination.
EXAMINATIONS and TESTS seem to take up the main part of a teacher's time.    One wonders if he or she is able to give enough serious attention to actually teaching the Syllabus.

I have always believed that any child or young person needs 'time out' from serious 'learning';   that there should always be opportunity to recover from the pressure of the day, the week, the Term. Time to just BE a child, a teenager, a son, a daughter, rather than just a means for teachers and parents to achieve some kind of 'reflected glory' in seeing the student do well.      In my own School days, admittedly a long time back in the 40's 50's and early 60's I never felt under pressure educationally. My teachers always covered their syllabus within the time allotted, achieving good results in examinations, and within reasonable learning hours - say 8a.m. to 4p.m. maximum.   All of us students loved our holidays, and enjoyed their freedom to the full - and we still managed to keep up in the Class; even me, an average student.      We did not 'grow' up too quickly either, and that was in fact a good thing, and helped the Classroom to be more manageable at all levels.    AND we still had the CANE in those days.    Could the Bible, God's living WORD actually be right when it tells us 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child', at least from the point of view of it being in itself a deterrent?
Perhaps because of this, on starting a School here in Kenya, and for the first ten years or so years of administering it, I have always been against EXTRA tuition, and also the proliferation of Tests and Examinations  compared to the time given for straightLEARNING I also confess to never having had the good will of Teachers OR Parents on either matter, so that even today both factors remain, in my opinion deterrents to progress, and to calm and orderly behaviour in our schools.

Returning to the matter of the Ministry's 2001 BAN as cited above    This Ban has just recently been reinforced and confirmed by the current Minister, Professor Kaimenyi.  Presumably this BAN is meant to be 'nation wide';  why then are some County Education Departments not willing, or able to implement this directive from Central Government?

Mr. Buhere, in his article, continues by saying:-
'Too much testing of students takes away the time meant for effective teaching and learning.'
'The 2001 Task Force on Student Discipline and Unrest, did not confine itself to administration of mock examinations to candidates preparing the KCSE;   IT ALSO made an observation to the effect that the number of tests done in the entire school system as part of continuous assessment were excessive and causes stress to the entire student body,and unnecessary expenditure by parents.'

FINALLY, Mr. Buhere says - 

'We would make the children of this country proud of all of us - all stakeholders in education -

if we adhered to the renewed ban on mock examinations, and holiday tuition,

both of which have created an inhospitable teaching and learning environment

 for the conscientious teacher, as well as for the average student

who needs a learning environment with less pressure than prevails in the current situation we have foisted upon him/her.

Needless to say I am in total agreement with him.   Though I am not hopeful our opinion will do a great deal to change the zeal of teachers and parents alike, in running our children into psychological disorders and rebellion against learning altogether.

Of course teachers want their children to produce good results in public examinations; it tends to lift up the name of the School they teach in, and also, of course, their own standing and reputation in the process.    Not a sin in itself - 

Also Parents will naturally hope and encourage their children to do well in School, in order to be more acceptable to the more lustrous Colleges and Universities, and perhaps also in the hope that their children might also outshine their neighbour's.      If the child seems slow, backward, or in some other way challenged why not increase his learning hours  they say.    Some arrive in School at 7a.m. or even earlier, and do not leave before 6p,m - and even then there are Special Tuition lessons in the evening in addition to the Homework given by their own day time teachers..      Even Holidays are not allowed to be holidays, but are seen as opportunities for a child to get, and keep, 'in front'!!    A Treadmill of misery  and often despair for the majority - just for the sake of the self aggrandisement of their elders.   This has been Kenya for the last forty years .......must it continue to be so?

Teachers, to some extent, can be controlled by good and responsible Management, but parents...?

Parents are often busier than they used to be, ALL the year long.     Both parents are often working, and sometimes even away from home.    This produces problems when children are at home.   At times, in some situations, children are actually felt to be an encumbrance to be palmed of on Day Care Centres, Boarding Schools and so on.   Sometimes no family life exists where a child can find affection, time for sharing, and appreciating the valued attributes of just being a family.     Often there is NO home to run to from the Hurley-burly, often stressful life of school; no home to find peace and freedom to be able to 'wind down' and relax.     These days such a home or family is hard to find.    Instead our children are being hounded by over anxious, over zealous parents.

'The point is not, of course, that parents or teachers should stop putting pressure on children to achieve.   The point is that we are out of balance.   Achievement has, in many cases, become the chief goal of child raising - and this intense focus threatens to make children both less happy and less moral.   The point is also that parents, schools, and communities, all have vital roles to play in curbing destructive forms of achievement pressure, and in cultivating HEALTHY notions of achievement. 

......CHILDREN  with "very high perfectionist strivings - those who see achievement failures as personal failures" are more at risk, as are children whose parents value their accomplishments more than aspects of  their character.   Ironically, this pressure is not even likely to achieve what it's intended to achieve.     Research suggests that children who are subjected to intense achievement pressure by their parents don't outperform other students.   (Assoc.for Supervision & Curriculum Development).

Generally we are seeing children growing up too fast; so fast that they are not even aware of the joys of being a child.     Indeed childhood has become a Learning Chore, more and more thrust upon the child, as if there is nothing else in life.   There is no rest from it.    What kind of men and women will many of our children become?   Will they be able to know how to bring up their own children?   Will they know how to assure their own children of their intrinsic value, regardless of their academic achievement?   Will they know how to enjoy,  and be happy with their children?     Or will they only be able to communicate the 'dullness' they themselves have achieved through their own exposure to a treadmill existence based on false promises and concepts?     Parenting and Parenthood will soon be abilities totally forgotten, unknown, and unrelated to our future society.   BUT the Bible tells us that it is the PARENT that is to bring up the child, to nurture it, and direct its thoughts; first by being taught about GOD, then by learning His Will, by reading His Word, and then by living it.     Deuteronomy 6v7 / Isaiah 28v9..
How we bring up our children - the Way we teach them at home. How much time WE, as parents, give them in friendship, company, encouragement, and family interaction conveying how much we care, and value them, matters more than ANY education.    We should not shrug off this responsibility;  we should not give it way to any School, and we should not let any school come between us and our child, to his/her detriment.      BUT the universal drift is away from this view.
Even the BASIC idea and concept of Marriage and Family is found in danger of becoming not only rare, but soon perhaps to face extinction. What then?    Anarchy?

Let us be careful not to drive our children to boredom and despair.     Remember King Solomon the Wise wrote -

'in the making of many books there is no end -

and much STUDY wearies the body.'