MY OPINION ON SCHOOLS RANKING

By Ken Leshan Sankale
kensankale@gmail.com

I always enjoy to debate and present my opinion in topics such as one which was posted in the daily nation on 1^st Dec 2014. The question “Do you support decision to stop ranking of schools and candidates” may be one hard question to give a suitable answer not only at individual level but also in the Ministry of Education in Kenya.

To introduce my opinion, I would like to say that ranking of schools is important in one way or the other. Before I state the importance of ranking, I first wish to express my concern on the school I attended during my basic level education, Namelok Primary School, located in Kajiado County and specifically Kajido South Constituency, which for the last couple of years, have recorded poor performance and among the bottom five schools in the whole County.

The same school in subject managed to produce leaders and professionals in varied fields and of bright minds such as Kajiado County Executive Member for Agriculture Livestock and Tourism, Mr. Joshua Majakusi, Mwalimu Lenchasi Tono, the current Head Master of Enkii Primary School and many more performing professionals and leaders in other sectors. The performance of the school has been worsening day in day out and a lot of solutions brought to action but none worked best as we are yet to see an improvement in terms of the performance.

Namelok Elites Community Based Organization carried out an independent detailed research to find out the leading factors contributing to the poor performance of the school that was once one of the best in the district, but I am sad to report that none of the authorities was able to address the problems that were recorded.

All the concerns that were raised by the community, individuals and the organizations based in the area are because ranking of schools is still achieved by the concerned authorities up to date. If not ranking, then it means that we couldn’t have realized if there was a problem in the school on regional basis.

This ranking has helped the school to measure the level and quality of educational resources they provide to the pupils and generally poor performance will specifically tell that something must be addressed.

Ranking of Schools is an important strategy. It determines and addresses the weakest areas of a particular school and come up with relevant strategic options to improve these areas.

The process of ranking schools should not be discouraged but rather taken as a serious way to improve the school performance. When the concerned authorities of a school are aware of why their school or their candidates are not performing well in academics, then it will be easier to look for an alternative option of improving the areas where they suspect there may be a problem pulling them back and this could only be seen through ranking.

Ranking also could be used to answer questions like; why is our school or candidate not leading the country? What do we need to adjust to be among the best in the country? And many more questions.

I do support ranking of schools and encourage concern authorities not to stop ranking schools, it has been there for many years and we enjoy celebrating best schools in the country as well as best candidates. In fact it is now our schools’ culture and I prefer this remaining the same with no alteration unless there is a proposal to perform a different ranking method.

In conclusion, it is important to say that ranking schools will not demoralize schools/candidates that have performed poorly, but will manage to prepare the rest of the candidates and ensuring that proper actions and reactions are taken to help them avoid a bad performance.

PROTECTING WOMEN OVER SHAMEFUL STRIPPING ACTS IS RIGHT

  By Ken Leshan Sankale 

kensankale@gmail.com

It has been a shame of activities in the streets of major towns in Kenya triggered by some dress codes which some would thing its indecent. I however fill sorry to the victims of this and wish this will never happen again in a developed state like Kenya.

Majority of Citizens had the opinion that the Government should take action to haunt all the suspected gangs who are involved in the so called stripping of ladies as we saw in demonstrations in streets of Nairobi.

Many however would celebrate the just concluded talks which all institutions proposed action be taken and as the News Kenya paper reported, an action has been approved by activist: "The sixteen days of activism against gender based violence was launched on Wednesday by President Uhuru Kenyatta. This comes at a time when the country is experiencing repeated acts of men stripping women in public. President Uhuru Kenyatta who presided over the event is the second president in Africa to endorse the He for She campaign after Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. The president urged members of public to play their role in protecting women and desist from capturing the humiliation on camera unless to capture the faces of the perpetrators." (News Kenya). 

I am also aware that the Law Society of Kenya has proceeded to ask for a special permission from the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to prosecute those found culpable of committing the shameful striping acts that were captured on camera two weeks ago in Mombasa and Nairobi  as the Kenya Police have also formed an Anti Stripping Squad to deal with the perpetrators of similar shameful acts that might arise in future.

However, I would wish in this case to support and congratulate the many ideas that formulated these strategies  of dealing with the perpetrators of such shameful acts. 

I would want to express my opinion by introducing the international human rights law which talks about freedom of dressing stating that ''Under international human rights law everyone has the rights to freedom of expression and freedom to manifest their religion or beliefs. The way people dress can be an important expression of their religious, cultural or personal identity or beliefs. As a general rule, the rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression entail that all people should be free to choose what - and what not – to wear.''

No one has a right to stripping women and if an action would not be propelled over the culprits then it means that this violence will continue until Jesus lands back to the earth from heaven.
Being a supporter of the ongoing twitter campaign "MydressMyChoice", I however need to add that everyone regardless of their gender, age and orientation have a personal responsibility without being commanded to dress decently.

Men have this in mind: "It is not your responsibility to strip ladies, but indeed your responsibility to protect them." and I wish someone can listen and watch "strength of a woman" by Shaggy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mILsx_c-vXw
 
Sankale Kennedy