To right any wrong in the United States is, after all, a simple process. You have only to exhibit it where all the people can see it plainly” – Charles Edward Russell. At the time of writing these words in the 1920s, Russell was a well-known crusading progressive reformer.
Going by the recent stories about school rules, we can replace the US with Kenya in that quote because it’s evident we need some progressive reforms and I choose to be the crusader. Recently, Starehe Boys Centre declined to admit a Form One boy because he didn’t fully comply with admission procedures.
The school administration issued a press release giving their own account and their explanation was fair enough, but it also exposed a fundamental principle that school administrators are oblivious about. The fact that the school, and this applies to all schools in Kenya, receives public money (no matter the percentage that some have argued is minimal and inconsequential) and their teachers are on public payroll, public interest which is to provide educational opportunities supersedes any long-standing biases, behaviour or in-bred culture.
That doesn’t mean rules and procedures should just be flouted but since public interest – which is providing educational opportunities - comes first, the school should have given the boy and his parents space to comply with their rules as the boy accesses learning opportunity, and not throwing him out.
Upon reading the press release further, this understanding seems quite foreign to the school management when they say the Ministry of Education recommended an additional 24 names to be considered for poor boys from marginalised counties but the school will only make an exception for this year because the recommendation is inconsistent with Starehe’ selection process.
It needs to be patently plain to the school administrators that if they want to enjoy that discretion then they have to make a choice of going completely private and the ministry will only come in to check quality standards of education and compliance. But if the school still wants to receive government subsidy then public interest comes top and accountability structure changes. It’s for the ministry to give the rules and procedures on providing educational opportunities not the other way around.
It’s the ministry’s mandate to en sure that access to educational opportunities in all public-funded schools are the same. So, the Starehe Boys Centre community has to make that choice but the school cannot play from both fields.It’s the same reasoning why a kid with dreadlocks is denied admission to Rusinga School and the Ministry of Education can’t do anything about it. But a public institution like Olympic High School can’t do that because you can’t use public money to impose biased and discriminatory preference.
Just like there are schools that do not admit kids from a single parent home, the policy is morally wrong and carrying toxic undertones, but the ministry can’t do anything about it because the discrimination happens within a private space, making it private bigotry.
This is exactly the legal thinking behind the build-up to the landmark US Supreme Court case “Brown vs Education Board” where the doctrine of America’s law and customs mandating strict racial segregation in educational institutions was overturned.
Though, I cannot end this debate without talking about latest developments where it has been misreported that the Supreme Court has banned wearing of hijab in schools. I wouldn’t want to discuss the ruling but engage on the progressive reasoning that needs to be applied here, which the High Court actually did.
Since the Methodist Church is the sponsor of the school then they have the discretion to impose their own religious preferences and the same should apply for a Muslim-owned school to have the discretion to set the rules that every student should wear hijab.
But for public schools, the school administrators cannot impose any discriminatory practice.
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