Going green: Kenyan doing his part

Here is another example from last year of an enterprising Kenyan using available green technology to become energy independent. Unfortunately our government is not supportive of such innovators because it takes away from the monopoly government energy producer.
We, the technologically savvy need to band together to bring a new order in the next General Elections.

Power of innovation

Here is a prime example of innovation at work in our rural areas. We will shortly be doing a post about how we can fund such projects in order to develop sustainable rural economies.

Beyond implementation: The arduous task ahead

The proposed constitution has passed the referendum stage and we applaud our brothers and sisters for voting in a civil and orderly manner. The work ahead of us is the implementation. It will be a hard upward journey given the radical proposals contained in the new constitution such as the new demarcations that will reshape the country into new governing units. In order to enforce the new constitution, various committees will be formed to push the implementation agenda forward. Story found HERE. The time line given is five years for full implementation which will take us well past the general elections of 2012. Some of the caveats will have to be functional before the elections such as the new wards (officials to be known as Assembly men and women instead of Councilors) and counties which will replace the provinces.
In my view, this constitution will be very expensive to implement, with the only immediate beneficiaries being the officials in the various implementation committees. The other longer term beneficiaries will be the holders of the purse strings when the devolution funds are released. As for the ordinary mwanainchi (regular citizen, man on the street), I predict a dismal and bleak future if we are to rely on this constitution to bring us any meaningful tangible progress. My dire prognosis is based on the hurried jostling by greedy politicians for inclusion in the various implementation committees for the lucrative allowances. I predict these committees will stretch their mandate as far as possible in order to milk the public coffers beyond their required time.
When the euphoria of this new constitution has dissipated, the millions of Kenyans just getting by will go back to their dreary existence while awaiting government progress that will probably not materialize in this lifetime. We do have viable options though.
Citizens United for Progress (C.U.P)
The above name will be one of our initiatives but locals are free to pick any name, the idea here is what is important.
This will be a grouping of local citizens, known to each other either through friendship, need or just banded together as neighbors. Their task will be to implement self help projects in their neighborhoods that will have an immediate impact on their day to day lives. Examples abound but they will be peculiar to specific localities. A previous article we did about neighborhood organizations can be found HERE.
‘Revolution’ through the ballot
If, as many Kenyans insist, progress has to come from the government, then we will definitely need a new set of leaders at the next General Election. In the premiere article of this blog we tackled the issue of what qualities a good leader ought to have. Here we will briefly reiterate what was previously said by posing a set of questions that may help guide the voter to make an informed decision come election time.
-Is the voter better off now as compared to the time their local government official was elected into office?
-Are there tangible public projects the official has initiated and followed through to completion that directly impact the voter?
-Will the prospective candidate’s record on matters affecting public issues be able to stand to scrutiny? Did they speak out when their fellow legislators adopted a stand that the rest of the country did not agree with? An example here would be the attempt by parliament for members to increase their pay to exorbitant amounts.
-How assessable is the official to the average voter? What is the response time if one were to inquire for information or assistance?
-What development ideas, concisely presented, does the candidate have when he comes vote hunting?
-What plans does the candidate have for including the voter in future development plans? For my part I intend to engage the citizenry in a form of participatory democracy where regular town hall style meetings will be held together with individual and interest group meetings held regularly. More details to be released after the registration of our party.
Conclusion
We as Kenyans have always been imbued with endless optimism even in the bleakest of times. It would be our wish that we use this state of euphoria we are enjoying to be vigilant, demanding and relentless as to the speedy implementation of this new constitution. The political class should not be allowed to use our goodwill to prolong, derail or skew the process of implementation in their favor.
Between now and the next General Elections, we need to seriously think about how we as individuals can help the country move forward economically and socially. Do we retain the old guard that will continue to fatten both belly and bank account on misappropriated public funds? Or do we pick someone with no corruption record and brimming with ideas on how to develop our nation?
Reader responses welcome.

Greed and Insecurity: Disparate brothers joined at the hip

Two events were reported by the local media recently that though appearing unrelated, are actually bedfellows, united in concert to incessantly deny us the ability to initiate and sustain progress and development.
The first news item concerned a proposal by Parliamentarians to hike their pay from the basic salary of Ksh 871,000 to Ksh 1.2 million. The Prime minister and the Vice President would each earn Ksh 3.2 million and Ksh 2.7 million respectively. Lawmakers debated and unanimously approved the report by the Public Service Commission in a record 30 minutes! If this proposal is signed into law, it would put the MPs salaries on par with members of the United States Congress, with the Prime Minister making more than the President of the United States!Story HERE
The other news story was from a suburb outside the capital city, Nairobi. A neighborhood in Ongata Rongai was raided by machete wielding thugs at night. The thugs demanded that the residents open their doors whereby they were robbed. Neighbors who answered the distress calls were set upon by the thugs and two residents succumbed to their injuries. This particular story touches this writer on a personal level because we settled in this area having moved from Nairobi to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city and adopt a homesteading lifestyle. My parents were victims of a raid previously. Incidences such as these are on the rise in major urban areas of the country whereby idlers raid homes of hard working decent people in a bid to acquire minus the labor. This is a method of enrichment taken from the politicians, only that they, the politicians rob us minus the violence while in office. But during election time, the bloated politician and the scrawny thug sport no difference in their use of violence to attain their nefarious means.

Unbridled unabashed greed permeates all levels of Kenyan society from our lawmakers to the clerks in the civil service to the police force. From the theft of public resources, practiced and refined to a fine art by politicians to the ‘toa kitu kidogo’ (give something small) demanded by the police force manning unauthorized traffic checkpoints. This ingrained culture of impunity threatens to derail us from moving forward as a nation imbued with the capacity to provide for its citizens the basic economic and social necessities.
The private sector has not been spared from this insidious avarice. National exams are being leaked to students for a price. Employers are demanding a bribe from potential employees. We no longer have a nation of supportive and caring neighbors.
How then do we move forward to ensure a peaceful Kenya with hope and promise for the youth and assured security for those that have labored to attain a semblance of relative comfort amid the deplorable squalor suffered by many?
Some ideas
Police reform
-We propose that the government recruits the police force from the universities and high schools. Perhaps a course such as Criminal Justice could be introduced to focus on investigative techniques, evidence gathering, surveillance and other modern methods of combating crime.
- We also propose that police recruits have a minimum educational background and are proficient in both English and Swahili.
-We propose that community awareness be a mandatory course of police training. Topics to be covered would include: polite interaction with the public, how to deescalate a non violent altercation, humane treatment of offenders among others.
-We propose a salary increase commiserate with the risks involved.
-We propose, most importantly, that police officers live in the locality they have been posted to. In addition, the government should actively recruit locally with the aim of sending recruits to their home towns as active duty officers upon graduation. The advantages of this are: the new recruits are familiar with their surroundings and more or less know who local trouble makers are and will be quick to spot visitors with suspicious intentions. They would also be more vigilant as they would be working among relatives, friends and neighbors they grew up with.
-We also propose that significant and severe deterrents be imposed to those officers found to be engaging in misconduct. Sting operations and tip lines to an independent body to report police abuses of power would be helpful.
-We also propose that police officers be well equipped with the latest equipment. In the above story of the raid, two officers ran quite a distance to respond to the victims. The Minister for Internal Security visited the victims the next day in an imposing contingent of escort and security vehicles. All this while local police do not have even one vehicle to respond to the woes of taxpayers!
Youth Empowerment
The population of Kenya is mainly made up of the youth. The politicians in power now are not a representative sample of the people they purport to represent. It would therefore be prudent to take any advice from these rulers with a hefty dose of cynicism and a side of wariness. The bungled elections of 2007 and the violence that followed after, shows us how the youth is vulnerable to the machinations of our nefarious rulers. The attempts made by this government to uplift their living standards have failed. An example is the Kazi Kwa Vijana (work for the youth) program. Its aim was to engage the youth in activities such as digging trenches, environmental clean ups such as the Nairobi River and also tree planting. Some projects were started but there was no follow up, an example, trees being planted but not watered only for them to dry later on. Also payment has not been forthcoming for a majority of the participants with the money either being withheld in bureaucratic tie-ups or embezzled altogether.
Some ideas
-A massive effort needs to be exerted at the local level to educate the youth on civics and the role of law in their lives. This should not be a nationally driven effort but a local undertaking focusing on the needs of the particular locality. The perils befalling the urban youth are not the same as those experienced by the rural youth. Urban youth may need to be enlightened on how to live peacefully with neighbors from different backgrounds despite exhortations by tribal leaders to engage in genocidal mayhem. Rural youth may need to be enlightened on the futility of gang life and the benefits of abiding by the law.
-We propose the establishment of village level polytechnic institutions where budding entrepreneurs and talented inventors may be provided an avenue to learn and flourish. They would be funded by the local government and local business people with an aim to employing them or taking a stake in their innovations.
-To diffuse the latent restlessness in our youth, we propose every locality has a year round calendar of sporting, social and cultural events that will fill up their spare time in a positive manner. Regional tournaments would be a way to further engage the youth in pastimes such as sports, drama, music and dance showcases and other cultural events.
-Regarding employment, there are no obvious or easy solutions. The government has proven unable to provide for our youth so we should instead try to approach the private sector to secure economic opportunities.
-We would suggest unpaid internship/mentorship programs for the youth. Local trades-people would take in students as apprentices to study trades like mechanics, green house farming or environmental trades like making and installing solar panels among others. Upon the successful completion of the apprenticeship period, the graduate would get some kind of certification or stamp of approval from their mentors. Local banks would then issue start-up capital or they would be employed by their mentors. The business of the mentors would then grow and things that used to be made far away would now be manufactured locally. Less inter-regional trucking would mean lower prices and customized options for the consumer.
Conclusion
We will leave the task of trying to reform our moribund civil service to weightier minds than ours. What we do know is that our rulers today are not serving the people who elected them thus a revolution is needed at the next general election to elect leaders with the moral fortitude to eradicate corruption in government.
The above ideas are but a sample of what can be done in a participatory form of democracy whereby all participants are vested in the success of the society at the local level. To this end, I will be offering my candidature for the position of a local area councilor or assembly man if the proposed constitution passes. We will register our budding movement, the African Economic Democracy Party as a political party next year. Economic revolutionaries are welcome to join us as we retake and reform our nation. People Power and progress for all!

Gauging the health of a nation

Recently polls have become all the rage especially in reference to the proposed constitution whose referendum is being held in August.
Whenever polls are done in Kenya, they are usually used to further the schemes of the ruling political elite to the detriment of the hapless ‘ordinary citizen’ who usually has no vested interest in the outcome of the polls. Perhaps we should start talking polls addressing the needs and concerns of Kenyans; this would than set the tone for the government’s development agenda.
A novel way to address the concerns of a nation through a satisfaction survey comes from the Kingdom of Bhutan in South Asia. Bhutan has managed to modernize while at the same time protect its ancient culture and traditions under the guiding philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Bhutan’s guide to happiness: Gross National Happiness (GNH).
The concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) was developed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures quality of life or social progress minus measurements of commercial transactions(as a key indicator)to directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.
The term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization. He used the phrase to signal his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values.
An alternate to measuring wealth solely on monetary terms, this model was developed as a survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being
Each year, Bhutan's prime minister reports to the National Assembly on “the four pillars of GNH:
-Promotion of equitable and sustainable socioeconomic development
-Preservation and promotion of cultural values
-Conservation of the natural environment
-Establishment of good governance.
As a result, Bhutan has implemented policies such as:
-Establishing public schools with rotation of teachers between rural and urban regions
-Providing both Western and traditional medicine
-Maintaining at least 60 percent of Bhutan's land as forest
Although Bhutan's per capita household income remains among the lowest in the world, and despite unresolved tribal conflicts that have exiled Bhutanese of Nepalese descent to refugee camps, several indicators show a brighter picture:
• Life expectancy rose from 47 years to 66 years
• Infant mortality dropped from 103 per 1,000 live births to 60 per 1,000 between 1984 and 2001.
• The fraction of the population with access to safe drinking water rose from 45 percent to 75 percent in the same time period
• Adult literacy increased from 23 percent to 54 percent.
In 2006, Business Week magazine rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world, citing a global survey conducted by the University of Leicester in 2006 called the "World Map of Happiness"
A second-generation GNH concept, treating happiness as a socioeconomic development metric, was proposed in 2006 by Med Jones, the President of International Institute of Management. The metric measures socioeconomic development of a nation's mental and emotional health by tracking 7 development areas:
1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.
Pertinent Points
If the Proposed Constitution were to pass in August, the nation would then adopt a devolved system of government that would replace provinces and districts with counties headed by Senators. The counties would have a County Assembly made up of Assembly Men representing the various Wards.
This proposed system of government would favor the policies we have been trying to formulate that address how to work towards sustainable rural economies.
In a county setting, wellness surveys could be conducted to ascertain how government funds should be utilized to best reflect the needs of local residents.
Since County Assemblies will be required to hold regular meetings, representatives of local community organizations, business people and concerned residents could bring proposals to be considered by the assembly for possible future implementation.
We would propose that local residents sit in on budget allocation hearings and have some input, via debate and proposal letters, as to how monies from the federal government will be allocated to the various development and social programs.
We would also propose that in all County Assembly meetings:
- They are open to local residents,
-Sessions are recorded and transcripts made available upon request to local residents.
-Records of the voting patterns of assembly members are made available upon request
-Records of attendance of assembly members are made available upon request
-Records of all financial transactions are made available upon request
Conclusion
It is our stated position that to become a healthy nation; economically, spiritually, morally and socially, we need to address the needs peculiar to every locality.
Unfortunately the local leader at the grass roots level is the very epitome of ineptitude. Anytime there is a news item about a Councilor, it is usually involves a rowdy meeting that invariably leads to fisticuffs or embezzlement of one kind of another.
In an effort to redeem the sullied reputation of the Councilor and to get an opportunity to implement the various ideas discussed here on this blog, I am offering my candidature for the seat of Assembly Man( upon the passage of the proposed constitution) in a local ward in Kajiado North Constituency.
I will be vying under the banner of our yet unregistered party, the African Economic Democracy Party.
Reader responses welcome.

Participatory Democracy: Giving power back to the people.

This offering was prompted by a recent news story in the Daily Nation newspaper of Kenya. In summation, the story talked about a group of Councillors who had been invited to a conference in Nairobi by the President to seek their support in the upcoming referendum on the draft Constitution. The Councillors heckled and booed the speakers and when the President tried to address them they punctured the air with shouts of “pesa! pesa!”(Money! money!). This was in apparent reference to a demand for a pay raise and increase in their allowances before they would offer their support to the passing of the new Constitution.
Unfortunately, these are the kind of grass roots leaders we have today, imbued with greed and bereft of any development agenda, yet quick to hold the government hostage by demanding pay raises to do what they were elected to do.
This dismal lack of public decorum displayed by the Councillors only reinforces points we had noted in previous posts, such as this initial offering found HERE.
Dire prognosis
The government will not bring about progress or development, not in present Kenya or in the next few generations. This grim prediction can be avoided if several things are to occur:
- The government redefines its role. It needs to avoid engaging in commercial enterprise, such as seeking foreign investors to partner in government projects. News item can be found HERE
-The government needs to provide better services for taxes collected. Its record on security for its citizens is abysmal. Thugs run wild and even state security forces have been involved in dubious incidents of gunning down civilians without probable cause or provocation.
-Infrastructure needs to focus on rural areas. While having a modern multi lane highway is impressive to visitors, the rural peasantry needs accessible roads to take produce to market and to facilitate commerce regionally.
So in contrast we present two inspiring stories of communities that organized to take back local government from officials and vest it back to the people most affected by its decisions.
Porto Alegre, Brazil-Proponents of participatory budgeting
In the early 1990s, the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, then-led by the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), garnered international attention for pioneering citizen participation in allocating a chunk of city resources. Now fifty thousand residents of Porto Alegre—poor and middle class, women and men, leftist and centrist, take part in the participatory budgeting process for this city of a million and a half people, and the numbers involved have grown each year.
Thousands of citizens sit through meetings, discuss budget priorities, and elect delegates to represent their neighborhoods. The result has been increased civic activity and city budgets which fairly address the needs of the whole city, rather than the wealthy and powerful few. The transparency of the process has eliminated corruption, which had nearly bankrupted the city. Democracy is thriving as citizens gain competence in talking with the mayor, specialists in agencies, and fellow citizens of different means.
Power and learning
The participatory budgeting cycle starts in January of each year with dozens of assemblies across the city designed to ensure the system operates with maximum participation and friendly interaction.
Each February, there is instruction from city specialists in technical and system aspects of city budgeting. Regular folks learn fast because what they are learning empowers them to change conditions that limit or extend their lives.
In March there are plenary assemblies in each of the city's 16 districts as well as assemblies dealing with such areas as transportation, health, education, sports, and economic development. These large meetings—with participation that can reach over 1,000—elect delegates to represent specific neighborhoods. The mayor and staff attend to respond to citizen concerns. In subsequent months these delegates meet weekly or biweekly in each district to acquaint themselves with the technical criteria involved in requesting a project be brought to a district.
At the second regional plenary, regional delegates prioritize the district's demands and elect councillors to serve on the Municipal Council of the Budget. The council is a 42-member forum of representatives of all the districts and thematic meetings. Its main function is to reconcile the demands of each district with available resources, and to propose and approve an overall municipal budget. The resulting budget is binding.
Since the participative budgeting program started:
• There are 120 public day-care facilities instead of two
• Fifty-seven new schools have opened; twice as many children attend school
• The percentage of homes with running water and sewer service has gone from 46 to 85 percent
• The transit system is modern, affordable, efficient, and widely used.
• Each year the bulk of new street-paving projects have gone to the poorer, outlying districts.
• In addition to these achievements, corruption, which before was the rule, has virtually disappeared.
• The Porto Alegre budgeting process is now used in 200 Brazilian cities, including São Paolo, one of the largest cities in the world.
Communal Councils in Venezuela- Revolutionizing democracy
Since the start of 2006, thousands of tiny Venezuelan neighborhoods, with an average of 200 families each, have been organizing communal councils. The councils are part of a broad effort to build a new political system of participatory democracy, in which citizens have control over the decisions that affect their lives. The councils are helping communities address common interests, funneling more money to basic community needs, and bringing people together in thousands of neighborhoods.
The story begins in the 1980s, Venezuela began an extensive decentralization process, launching mayoral elections and handing over new responsibilities to local governments. After Chávez was elected president in 1998, he continued the decentralization, but changed its emphasis. He called for transferring power not to local government, but directly to popular movements.
The Communal Councils Law was passed in the Venezuelan National Assembly in April 2006, it legally recognized the communal councils and, according to Chapter Five of the Law, established the councils’ right to legally receive and administer resources from government institutions.
The law recommends that each urban council contain 200-400 families, each rural council at least 20 families, and each indigenous council at least 10 families. These assemblies are to elect executive, financial management, and monitoring committees, as well as thematic committees based on local priorities (health, education, recreation, land, safety, etc.).
By law, they can receive funds directly from the national, state, or city governments, from their own fundraising, or from donations. In turn, the councils can award grants for community projects. If they set up a communal bank with neighboring councils, they can also make loans to cooperatives or other activities for use.
Effects on the community
Eight months after the law was passed, over 16,000 councils had already formed throughout the country—12,000 of them had received funding for community projects. That’s $1 billion total, out of a national budget of $53 billion. The councils had established nearly 300 communal banks, which have received $70 million for micro-loans.
The communal councils have implemented thousands of community projects, such as street paving, sports fields, medical centers, and sewage and water systems.
Getting people to participate
A national system of participatory democracy requires more participation from more people than any social movement or other form of civic engagement. Venezuelans are indeed participating in massive numbers. Thousands of communities, however, have yet to show much interest in organizing a communal council.
Encouraging participation.
-First, Caracas has delegated significant power directly to the communal councils. The allure of self-government attracts many people.
-The government has also provided direct positive incentives for participation. The most obvious is money. Many people get involved because they can get funds for neighborhood improvements, but only if they form a council.
-The councils attract people by making their events fun. Some of the more prolific councils mix music, food, and entertainment into their assemblies. These virtual block parties transform one of the costs of participation (tedious meetings) into a benefit (a good time).
-Finally, the government is trying to reduce the obstacles to participation. Because the councils are so local, the transportation and time costs of participation are less.
-Another approach is even more ambitious—freeing people’s time by making participation part of their jobs. Such a program could especially boost the participation of working professionals and could be coordinated by the state, like a form of community service.
Venezuela’s communal councils are still a work in progress, but so far, the results are promising. Thousands of communities are mobilizing as never before, taking advantage of their new power to decide government spending and policies.
Conclusion
From the above stories there are many fine examples that we will research and tweak to fit to Kenya’s local situation. The budding political party, The African Economic Democracy Party is currently a Think Tank dedicated to Rural Development policy formulation and implementation and will be charged with bringing to fruition these ideas here and in previous offerings.

The demerits of factory schooling

In a previous article, we decried the usefulness of our education system, as it is today, in preparing students for nation building. In the article, found HERE, we took issue with the emphasis on the teaching methods used that emphasis rote learning to pass exams. The top scoring students in the national exams are feted while being cursorily reassured that they may have a promising future, while the lesser scoring students are discarded to fend for themselves in the informal sector, without further training.
In this submission, we will make arguments against this education system we have in place. We have to state that we are not diminishing the usefulness of a higher education especially in specialized areas such as doctoring, lawyering or other sciences. What we do wish to present is the argument that we should adopt a policy of giving our students a well rounded education to prepare them for a fulfilling life after school.
India’s Shikshantar: Rethinking education and development.
This grassroots movement, website HERE, encourages individuals and communities to reclaim control over their own learning processes, minds, and hearts. Its philosophy springs from the Gandhian principle of Swaraj, or liberation through self-mastery and self-awareness of the diverse and non-violent cultures, traditions, and values of South Asia.
For the people of Shikshantar, social change starts with individuals and communities existence and daily practices. That means drawing on traditional wisdom and imagination to build trusting communities; value indigenous expressions and local resources; and continually share skills, visions, and experiences across generations.
Community members involved with Shikshantar have transformed the entire city of Udaipur in Rajathstan into a learning ecosystem.
• Through songs, stories, films and publications, the community is regenerating Mewari, the local language that has been falling from use because of the government promotion of Hindi and English.
• Led by artists, farmers, healers, chefs and artisans, free workshops teach local crafts made from waste, media production, self-healing, slow food recipes, and sustainable agriculture.
• Shikshantar also offers resources to walk-outs - its term for people who have chosen to leave traditional schools - such as apprenticeships that give walk-out youth on-the-job training, real world vision, and the skills they need for green vocations and lifestyles.
The Community School: Offering alternatives through Relational Education
“Relational Education” is a form of education that places a primary focus on the development of trusting, supportive, and resilient relationships between all members of the learning community. It has been crafted by the staff and students at the Community School, Camden, Maine.
What the Community School offers to students, who are 16 to 20 years old, is unique and attractive – a six month residence that combines work, community living, and academics and results in a high school diploma regardless of previous success or failure in traditional schooling.
What it is
Teachers as Listeners
One aspect of our approach is that teachers must become listeners. We actually call our faculty teacher/counselors. Each student is assigned a “one to one” or advisor, who they meet with regularly to go over their progress in the program and to develop a trusting and supportive relationship.
Informal Time and the Experience of Each other as Human Beings
Teacher/counselors live at the Community School. Human interactions occur over a breakfast bowl of cereal, on a ride to work, in a late night discussion in the living room, during “informal” times when our “official roles” in the community are not as sharply defined. It is here that we find out that we are more alike than different.
The Development of Trust
Choice: Students have chosen to come to us of their own free will, they have applied to the School, gone through an extensive interview process and have chosen to stay after completing the two and a half week trial period at the beginning of the term
Sensible structure: Day to day life at the Community School makes “sense” – students work at jobs in the community during the day, are responsible for daily household chores, and study at night
Academic engagement: Students are involved in the structuring of their own courses; whenever possible curricular subject matter is relevant to the student’s interests and skill levels
Democratic decision making: Students are involved with faculty in making decisions regarding programmatic issues as well as codes and consequences for individual behaviors.
A Sense of Belonging
Because of its small scale (eight students, six faculty), residential nature, and focused goal, the School creates a learning community which invites a sense of belonging from the participants.
The School’s Outreach program which works with graduates and families to help them with their post-graduate lives.
Former students also play a role with current students through volunteering as tutors, panelists, special class presenters, and working in the program.
Responsibilities and the “Real World”
Students at the Community school hold jobs in the community and owe room and board. They do not graduate if they are not paid up. They have to find and hold these jobs in order to complete the program.
Pertinent points
-From the Indian Shikshantar movement, we learn the usefulness of preserving our own cultures and languages. Perhaps we can introduce tribal languages as options for students to study.
-Another idea would be to have students stay with a host family of a different tribe over holidays to learn their customs and traditions.
-Students who do not make it to University and don’t have funds to pay for technical school, could perhaps get apprenticeships with trades people to learn hands on. Experienced trades people could get a kind of teaching certification and would then give some kind of diploma to successful apprentices.
- From the Community School in Maine, we learn of the usefulness of students and teachers interacting in an informal setting. If our teachers scheduled activities with students such as eating lunch together while discussing the day’s news, attending sporting events and others, teachers and students would value each other more and would be more receptive to formal learning.
Conclusion
We ought to reconsider the Culture of Schooling because:
• It labels, ranks and sorts human beings. It creates a rigid social hierarchy consisting of a small elite class of ‘highly educated’ and a large lower class of ‘failures’ and ‘illiterates’, based on levels of school achievement.
• It forces human beings to violently compete against each other over scarce resources in rigid win-lose situations.
• Confines the motivation for learning to examinations, certificates and jobs while delinking knowledge from wisdom and practical experiences.
• It drives people to distrust their local languages. It prioritizes newspapers, textbooks, television as the only reliable sources of information. These forms of State and Market controlled media do not serve the interests of the general public.
• It destroys the dignity of labor and devalues the learning that takes place through manual work.
The African Economic Democracy Party, will be responsible for implementing the views presented here. We hope it will have a national appeal when we launch next year. We invite economic revolutionaries to join us to bring the progress only we the people can effect.
Reader responses welcome.