Africa-Press – Lesotho. SOME things never change. Never! This week the Minister of Education, ’Mamookho Phiri, bathed, wore her Sunday best and dabbed her face with makeup. She was then chauffeured to a press conference to announce the latest Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE) results.
And it was the same sad old story of the same schools in privileged areas outshining the poor rural schools. A list of best-performing students and schools was delivered with pride.
So and so school had the best results. So and so students were the best. She then announced that there was a drop in the pass rate. She deserves some kudos for announcing her ministry’s failure with a straight face.
But it wasn’t lost on Muckraker that she was uncomfortable mentioning the terrible pass rate and the obvious fact that rural schools have struggled again.
The agenda of the press conference was to tell us about the top students and their schools. The bottom schools, predominantly in the backwaters of Lesotho, were some minor inconveniences.
Given a choice, she would have completely ignored those ‘disappointing’ schools and students. After all, they mess up a good story. The story of our education is one of the rich versus the poor.
It’s a tale of how well-resourced schools continue to get accolades they don’t deserve while poor schools persistently endure the shame that is not of their making.
It’s about how our government is obsessed with top performers. Below-average students are consistently consigned to the dust bins while the brilliant ones are pampered all the way.
This is a rat race that the government has vigorously sponsored for years. What matters to them is the number of students who have written the examinations.
How they performed is another matter. Bring out the A students and the real story of the marginalised student is forgotten. It doesn’t worry them that most of those who wrote the LGCSE last year should not have been anywhere near the examination rooms.
They have been disadvantaged from the day they entered the school system. Some are not even at the junior certificate competence levels. Others are Grade 3 students who have been shoved through secondary school.
They have no books or teachers. They walk miles to attend school tired and hungry. It’s a race in which some students have Nike runners while others are not only barefooted but have their legs chained.
Surprisingly, the government thinks it’s a fair race because the examination is the same and it has spent millions building schools. That’s why ministers see no shame in having press conferences to announce results and mention the top performers.
There is no introspection on why some schools perform better than ours. The reasons are as naked as a goat’s behind. The top schools are top because they have the resources and their circumstances are better.
But there is also another noxious reason. They are better because they are allowed to cherry-pick top students in Form A. They have a sieve that separates below-average students from the brilliant ones.
They are taking ready-made students. Top schools get top students who easily achieve top results that put their schools into the top ten. Rural schools, on the other hand, are forced to take every student.
The system is therefore rigged at enrolment. The government is comparing a student who studies under an LED light and one who has to grope through the lines under candlelight.
A student who is driven to school to one who has to walk ten miles to their class. A student who has cereals in the morning to one who works the fields before school.
The real heroes of our rigged education system are not the top students but the poor students in rural schools who still struggle to finish secondary school. They are doing so against all hurdles imposed by their circumstances and the government.
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