Education is one most misconstrued mechanisms for the identification and application of children’s abilities and potential. If that is really the intention we had in establishing formal education.
It’s indisputable, that school does not give intelligence or abilities, but is expected to discover what materials young ones are made of and guide intellect development.
If we doubt this hypothesis, let’s ask ourselves who trained the Wright brothers to make aeroplanes? Who taught Bill Cates on software? Who taught the first farmers? It was inherent intelligence and abilities that drove these creations.
The CBC, despite its implementation challenges, had got it right that long gone were days where the success of our children only depended on their memory capacity. That it is time to test hands-on capacity and other social abilities.
However, the curriculum becomes self-defeatist when we insist on 100 per cent primary-secondary school transition. A pupil, unless with a unique challenge, may have demonstrated low capacity to ingest primary level materials, what makes us think that s/he is likely to perform miracles when subjected to advanced content at secondary school?
The policy is a waste of time and resources. The government had a brilliant idea in establishing Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions. These were meant to mitigate and ensure proper utilisation of children with low interest in academics but with interest in the technical field.
Transferring all pupils to secondary schools increases the frustration to all stakeholders: Parents, teachers and the students. More money is expected to sustain more students in secondary schools, while teachers are working hard to get the results from the less fertile minds, consequently causing resentment and low esteem in low performing students.
The government should organise primary schools as real basic education centres, majoring in communication and information and ease unnecessary pressure by diverting less competitive pupils to technical institutions instead of advancing the already challenged minds to the secondary level.
2022 Saboti MP aspirant
