SOUTH AFRICA-SCHOOLS HAVE FAKE TEACHERS

04/EEN/012

Fake teachers cheated pupils

By Sinegugu Ndlovu

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Independent Newspapers

School pupils in KwaZulu-Natal have been taught for several years by people with fake degrees and qualifications. Photo: Matthews Baloy

School pupils in KwaZulu-Natal have been taught for several years by people with fake degrees and qualifications.

An education expert says the effect of children being taught by under-qualified teachers would be felt for years.

The Education Department announced yesterday that it had dismissed 53 employees it found guilty of submitting fake education qualifications, a scam that cost the department R14 million in inflated salaries it should not have paid.

The fake qualifications were discovered after an internal control and risk management exercise conducted by the department earlier this year.

The results of the exercise prompted the department to em bark on a headcount of all its employees, as part of a programme to identify employees with fraudulent qualifications.

More than 100 000 workers were covered in the investigation.

The department’s superintendent-general, Cassius Lubisi, said 56 employees initially faced charges of misconduct relating to fake qualifications. However, three had since died.

In an attempt to rid itself of bogus employees, in 2006 the department opened an amnesty period for employees who had submitted CVs with bogus qualifications.

“Those who failed to come forward are now facing the consequences,” said Lubisi.

Most cases were concentrated in the department’s largely rural northern KZN cluster.

Lubisi said the financial loss suffered by the department was immeasurable compared to how the education of hundreds of children had been compromised as a result.

“The department has suffered huge financial losses, with an estimated R14 million (paid) from March 2004 to August last year because of this fraud. This has dire consequences for the department, considering that some officials were holders of critical teaching posts, as the majority were school-based educators.

“These individuals not only defrauded the department of millions of rands… They gambled with the future of many children, the majority of whom come from the most disadvantaged rural areas,” he said.

Lubisi said the matter had been handed to the police, and the individuals concerned would be charged with fraud. The department would try to recover the R14m.

Mthokozisi Miya, owner of Makhawini Recruitment Agency, said the government often fell into the “fake CV trap” because nepotism played a big role in how people were employed. He said it was important for employers to double-check the credentials on CVs before making appointments.

“With the government, recruitment is about who you know… But it’s not only government that gets caught in this trap – even big corporations fall into it. It’s important to check if the credentials on a CV are valid,” he said.

Education analyst Kobus Maree said the effects of such scams were felt for years. “The children will acquire a backlog in terms of how they learn… In isolated cases, pupils will achieve, but in most cases they won’t,” he said. - The Mercury

KENYA-DEGREES IN CONTENTION

04/EEN/012

New dawn for varsity education?

Published on 05/10/2010

By Wachira Kigotho

The debate about whether local universities are offering irrelevant degrees will continue taking centre-stage so long as there are no guidelines on marketing of higher education amid shrinking Government support of public universities.

On their part, universities contend there are no irrelevant degrees in their menu of courses while Higher Education Minister William Ruto alleges some academic programmes are of no value to the country’s development goals.

But the issue is that in the last two decades, the university scene has undergone significant changes, ushering sharp focus of competition between courses. Internally competition is also rife between high and low-earning departments and faculties.

Externally, competition for students is intense among public and private universities. According to educationists, the emerging academic capitalism has reduced some degrees and diplomas to mere marketable commodities. "The commercial dimension of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is determining the very nature and conditions in which courses are taught," says Unesco in its recent World Social Science Report 2010.

Junior colleges

Subsequently, the underlying dynamics of market forces have made people to hold divergent viewpoints on what higher education should be. For instance, universities top management and academic staff have no qualms about introduction of courses that are traditionally offered by junior colleges and polytechnics. Some of those certificate and diploma courses have been upgraded into degrees without change in content.

For instance, programmes in tourism, leisure and hospitality, secretarial studies, information technology, entrepreneurship and small business management, which in most countries are taught in junior colleges, have been created.

Time is now to strengthen vocational colleges instead of competing with universities for students. "In some cases, boundaries have been blurred between offerings of elite public universities and vocational colleges," says Dr Carol Bidemi, the foremost leading expert on marketisation of higher education in East African universities.

Even as the Government fault universities for offering what they consider to be irrelevant courses, there is need to understand that public universities are struggling from decades of brain drain and neglect by the Government. Consequently intrusion of business practices into higher education is radically changing institutional behaviour of the universities, not only in Kenya but also across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, there are about 145,000 university students enrolled in local public universities of which 35 per cent are private students paying full-cost of their education. Most of those students are enrolled in arts-based degrees not necessarily because they wanted to study those courses but because they had poor grades in sciences and maths at secondary level.

Science intake

According to Carnegie Foundation, an education think tank based in New York, African universities lack a significant number of students and academic staff in fields of science and technology. In this case Ruto’s enthusiasm for universities to improve on their intake in science and technology programmes should be welcomed. But, the Government should know the hurdles lying ahead as it embarks on an ambitious plan to improve science education in public universities. A recent report from Carnegie Foundation on building science capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa indicates Kenya’s universities have inadequate senior academic staff in sciences.

"At Kenyatta University, of 730 academic staff, only 31 are full professors and 48 associate professors," says Prof Phillip Griffiths, a senior research fellow at Carnegie and a member of an international lobby of scholars dedicated to fostering science in Africa.

Even then, Griffith’s says most of the professors and those in other public universities are nearing retirement age. Taking into account that demand for science graduates is rising, time is now for the Government to jump-start staff development programmes in public universities by offering scholarships to brilliant young scholars to pursue doctoral degrees in basic sciences, maths and engineering. "There should be a concerted effort to prepare PhD-level scientists and engineers through university –based research and networks," says Griffiths.

The government should consider as a matter of priority improving science laboratories in public universities. Most university science and engineering laboratories and equipment are in a state of decay or are obsolete.

Before Ruto cracks the whip on universities to go back to their original missions, there should be a comprehensive assessment of scientific needs of the institutions.

KENYA-BEYOND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

04/EEN/012

Published on 28/09/2010

By KIUNDU WAWERU

Students of Visa Oshwal Academy Senior High were ecstatic as they received awards for excellence in final examinations after two years of study.

Finally, with the quality British curriculum education, they would join top universities and hopefully on graduation get highflying jobs.

But the guest of honour Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph, surprised them by telling them that "to make it in life, you need to achieve something more than a degree."

 

‘What?’ the students, parents and teachers may have wondered even as they listened keenly to their guest who is the epitome of success. You could here a pin drop as the CEO carried on: "You need much more than schooling to live your life’s ambitions."

An electrical engineer by profession, Joseph has steered Safaricom into the leading company in East Africa.

So what sets achievers, average performers and losers apart? Clearly, much more than books. One of the most revered educationists in the world proved this in her scientific observations.

A doctor, Maria Montessori started a new system of education that is also offered in Kenya. She believed that education is not what a teacher gives, but; "a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference."

Transmission

One of Montessori’s successes was having mentally handicapped children study for a state examination, which they passed with above average scores. "And if education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to hope for it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use When career counsellors met with over 900 high school students in Limuru, they were taken aback by how ignorant they were about careers.

Among the students was Dennis Thiongo a Form Three student at Thigio Boys High School who has has no idea what he needs to qualify for his dream career — engineering.

"I love design, and making and repairing gadgets, but I do not know how to nurture this passion into a career," he says.

Unlike his counterparts in the city who may access to information on careers from the Internet, he relies on his overworked guidance and counselling teacher who also handles her normal teaching load and other student problems.

Thiongo’s mother says she does not have much knowledge about careers, which renders her unable to mentor her son. "The best I can do is to struggle to pay school fees and encourage my son to work hard in his studies but I can not make an engineer out of him because I don’t know anything about engineering," she says.

Platform

Recently Mwathi Foundation and Broad Horizon Limited held a career exhibition at Ndungu Girls Secondary School in Limuru to encourage students to select the right careers.

Broad Horizons Operations Director Florence Njoroge says the event is an opportunity for the students, teachers and parents to think ahead. "Our mission is to provide a networking platform for educational and career stakeholders by bringing together successful former local students, prospective employers, institutions of higher learning, and Government educational bodies to the rural areas to enlighten and motivate students", she says.

The founder and Limuru constituency MP Peter Mwathi says that the foundation is committed to promoting education in Limuru by giving individuals a chance to achieve their career objectives.

He says lack of appropriate role models has been a big problem in the schools and at home and calls on parents, teachers, professionals to help nurture students to the right careers.

But Ms Mercy Njoroge an alumnus of Kambui High School says the various stakeholders lack the necessary training and exposure to assess and advise the students properly.

Roselyne Maina of The chartered Institute of Marketing, one of the key exhibitors believes that entrenching the value of professionalism among the youth is key to achievement of vision 2030.

"Students should embrace professionalism right from schools so as to fit into the various corporate cultures and Chartered Institute of Marketing has been enhancing professional standards by providing links to those who want to join professional bodies, " she says.

student abilities

According to Ms Julie Waweru of Compuera College, it is important to enlighten students on the opportunities available even for those who do not make it to the university. "Some students become disillusioned in life when they fail to join universities yet there are many opportunities", says the college administrator.

Ms Njoroge a teacher at St Mary’s Thigo, feels there is a disconnect between the choice of professional courses and the abilities of students. She says students want to join prestigious universities where the cut off points are high, yet they could have still joined other chartered institutes with lower cut off points. Gladys Wanjohi of Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examination Board, advises students to combine professions so as to be more marketable in the work place. "We have Doctors and lawyers who are accountants and MBAs," she said.

Students at a career exhibition held by Mwathi Foundation and Broad Horizon Limited in Limuru. [PHOTO: COURTESY].

CELEBRATION OF EXCELLENCE

04/EEN/012

University of Nairobi

Published on 05/10/2010

Over 4,473 students from the University of Nairobi were awarded degrees and diplomas at a colourful ceremony presided over by the Chancellor, Joseph Wanjui. The 43rd graduation brought the total number of alumni to 117,531.

 

During the ceremony, 26 PhDs, 679 masters, 2,409 bachelors, 43 post-graduate diplomas and 1,314 diplomas were awarded.

The event featured graduands from the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, Architecture and Engineering, Biological and Physical Sciences, and, the College of Education and External Studies.

The remaining two colleges will graduate at the 44th ceremony scheduled for December 3 – in keeping with the tradition of two ceremonies per academic year, embraced five years ago.