LETTERS: Invest in quality education to spur development

When Education Secretary Prof George Magoha released the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results this week, one thing that stood out was that this year there were no cancelled results because of cheating as had been the norm in past national exams.

Further, it was evident that the performance had improved marginally this year as compared to the last year. Nevertheless, the most important hurdle now is to ensure over a million children get places in secondary schools.

To guarantee a hundred percent transition to secondary level, there is an urgent need to investment in education by government in terms of infrastructure and capacity. This is the only way to safeguard the quality of education our children are getting. Unfortunately, today we still have schools with dilapidated infrastructure and inadequate tutors across the country.

Accordingly, education in every facet is the foundation of development in any country and a central aspect of socio-economic empowerment for the people. Indeed, no country can achieve socio-economic development without considerable investment in human capital that is derived from quality education.

Education enhances people's understanding of themselves and expands people’s worldview as well as increasing their knowledge and perspective about life. Quality education improves the lifestyles of people and leads to broad social benefits to individuals and society.

Certainly, developed countries have appreciated the importance of quality education as the catalyst for development and socio-economic empowerment and have heavily invested in their education systems. Undeniably, some of best education institutions are found in developed countries such as USA and in Europe.

It is therefore important that as a country we invest in our education system. It would be a failure on part of the government if some of the pupils will not get slots in form one. The government must ensure that every child get a chance to pursue secondary education during the selection processes.

Further the process must be fair and free from any form of manipulation. This is because quality education raises people's productivity and creativity and promotes entrepreneurship and technological advancement within societies.

In addition, it plays a very crucial role in securing socio-economic progress and improving income circulation amongst people.

During the World Economic Forum in 2016 it was recommended that there are three avenues through which quality education impacts on socio-economic development. First, it increases the shared ability of a workforce to carry out existing tasks more speedily and in a better manner.

Secondly, secondary and tertiary education particularly facilitate the transmission of knowledge about latest information, products, and technologies created by others and lastly, quality education increases ingenuity and boosts a country’s own capacity to create new knowledge, products, and technologies. Consequently, the value of quality education in Kenya cannot be assumed if the county is to achieve Vision 2030 development blueprint.

Further, ignoring the economic value of education would imperil the prosperity of future generations in the country, with widespread negative impacts such as poverty and social exclusion.

The government must investment in quality secondary education as this provides a clear enhancement to economic development. Universal primary education alone cannot achieve development for a county.

Indeed, universal primary education must be supplemented with the aim of ensuring primary school pupils have at least secondary education while ensuring quality is safeguarded.

Certainly, quality secondary education and universal primary education will give poor countries the necessary human capital boost large segments of the population out of poverty thus fostering socio-economic development.

Quality education is a must investment for Kenyan government, to help in social and economic benefits. Research has shown that people who are educated and have access to quality education throughout primary and secondary school are likely to find gainful employment, have steady family units, and are active and productive.

Bernard Kimani, Nairobi.