Kenyans happy that education officials’ efforts have borne fruit

Something good is definitely happening in the education sector, especially as far as examinations go.

A lot is being said about this since the announcement of this year’s KCPE examination results on Thursday.

Naturally, one cannot talk about this subject without the name of the current minister for Education, Dr Fred Matiang’i, coming to mind.

What has so far come out of the “surgical” procedure that the ministry is carrying out is that there clearly has been a huge problem with certain stages of the examination process.

Now the minister has signalled a shift and said categorically that things will never be the same again.

He does seem determined and, without doubt, he has won the hearts of many Kenyans.

He reminds one of the late John Michuki, Minister for Transport, and how he focused on and put some order in the matatu industry.

In spite of all the opposition that the matatu owners put up, Michuki vigorously went ahead and implemented reforms that he had introduced.

Even when that section of the public transport sector went on strike, citizens were willing to walk to work in support of the reforms. It worked.

Of course we all know what happened as soon as another man was appointed to that ministry.

The momentum of order in the matatu industry could not be sustained and, right now, the chaos is of unsurpassed proportions.

Both Michuki and Matiang’i have demonstrated to us that with resolve, commitment, focus and consistency, good order can be made to permeate through the public service.

STATE'S JOB

In the same way that matatus endangered the lives of commuters, cheating in examinations comes with the risk of forming a generation of people who do not know how to do straight business.

And, of course, we do have people like that in our society, which makes Kenya a land of drama.

Some time last week, I watched an argument between two politicians on television.

One was from the opposition and the other from the government side.

The subject of discussion was corruption with a special focus on the money that was lost at the NYS.

The man from the government side was busy accusing the other of having personally benefited from the looting at the NYS.

On his part, the opposition man argued that even if he had benefited, fighting corruption is the job of those in government and not those in the opposition.

I did not think that any of them was right.

If those in government are accused of corruption, it does not make it any better when they point out that even the opposition has been corrupt. Corruption is wrong whoever commits it.

Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi [email protected]