Following disturbing reports from Moi Girls Secondary School over the weekend, a section of Kenyans are of the opinion that boarding schools should be abolished.
Herman Manyora who is a lecturer of communication and linguistics at the University of Nairobi opined that the boarding school system was an outdated model and should be replaced with community schools.
"I'm inviting Kenyans to seriously think about abolishing the boarding school model in favour of community schools. Boarding schools are really a colonial relic. Such schools were meant to 'save' African children from harmful cultural practices.
"Abolishing boarding schools will also enhance equality as children from different backgrounds will attend the same community day schools," he tweeted on Sunday.
Kenyans.co.ke reached out to Mr Manyora who explained how community schools could be established in relation to the Kenyan society.
[caption caption="Herman Manyora"]
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"You create a geographical zone such as a ward or a sub-division and factors such as the population density will influence the establishment of the school.
"The community has an interest in the school and parents become invested in providing the school has facilities and resources to ensure their students succeed.
He added with comunity schools, incidences where school children have to commute as early as 4 AM to go to school would be done away with as the institutions would be in close proximity to the residences.
On the point that boarding schools instilled a sense of responsibility and independence in students, Manyora stated: "On the contrary, boarding schools alienate students from the society.
"The best responsibility that a person can have is to be a person of value to the society. When children are part of the community, they are more useful and apprecriate life within their society."
On her part, Dr Wandiya Njoya elucidated that boarding schools were actually corrupting young people, teaching elitism and getting ahead at the expense of everyone else.
"The thing we should have done after independence was to leave church boarding schools out of public support, and then build accessible public day schools, and enforce zoning laws so that we have a school every number of kilometers for every specific number of people.
"For areas where the population is sparse, counties could build hostels with the money they now spend on bursaries. The hostels would have the staff that I’m talking about as required in a boarding school. Public schools also have an added advantage. Their computer labs, libraries and community halls can be used for adult education or community events in the evening and holidays, at no charge, since they are a public facility," she wrote on Facebook.
[caption caption="Dr Wandiya Njoya"]
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She added that the education system should teach Kenyans to think long term so that they are able to vote for leaders who can launch a long-term project.
"Phasing out boarding schools requires a 20-year restructuring of society, both in terms of space and ideology. But there is no politician willing to start a project for which he cannot cut a ribbon or a project which will be complete long after he has left office," Dr Njoya stated.
