Ever heard the phrase “going through school without school going through you”? Well, I sometimes think this is very possible and sometimes to the advantage of some people. Yeah, there are people who have form four certificates but look like they have never stepped into any academic institution all their life. That is how life is, anyway.
Perhaps that is why despite the increasing number of university admissions in Kenya, only few go through university in real sense. Notably, it has often been said that Kenyan universities produce half-baked graduates; yet the problem is not with the universities, nor with the education system. The problem is that very few of those admitted into universities really go through the university; and the university ‘goes through them’.
Criticizing education is a thing of the past, and trust me, that is not what I am trying to do. There are people, however, who have taken us back into that antiquity by deliberately criticizing our education system, through their actions of ‘going through school without school really going through them’.
From personal experience, not once have I been openly confronted by a drunkard or a matatu conductor for ‘being so serious with life’- claiming they were too but still ended up where they are. I have confirmed, myself, that one of the drunkards-who in his late 20’s- actually has a degree. As a matter of fact, is it so strange in the modern day to find a woman with a degree who is simply a housewife. Well, it is not just the contempt that undermines education, but the fact that such people are actually educated is maligning and act as a great reproach to education itself.
I will not say that where someone ends up after his/her degree is all up to him/her, but I do know for sure that people graduate with two different types of degrees, irrespective of the honours: a degree from a university and a degree from ‘campus’, otherwise known as campo. I don’t know what campus means to you, but to me, and to those who go there, it means some sort of a paradise where people are free to do anything. And I mean anything, without restrictions of reason, ethics or virtues. Those people go there purposefully for ‘a degree’: it’s just that there is no specific formal way of obtaining that degree. I hear some of those degrees are ‘sexually transmitted’, some ‘money-bought’, some harambee, and some achieved through ‘artificial intelligence’, otherwise known as mwakenya. Well, it doesn’t matter how the degree is achieved, because in campus the end justifies the means, not the other way round.
You know, in campus, every action perfectly defines just three words: avarice, debauchery and pleasure. There is nothing else better understood by the campus boys and girls better than these three, and believe you me, they really know what actions define them. Neigh, it is not wrong to be aggressive, just the intents are not right. It is not wrong to go outside one’s area of study, just the means and intents are unjustifiable. It is not wrong to have fun, it’s just how that is diabolic. If there are any such things as priorities in campus, then schoolwork is not one of them, and if it is, then it is the least. No, education, or rather degree, isn’t the main reason why people go to campus. I may not know the main reason, but at least I know a reason, which is to live absolutely limitless of such things as morals and reason, knowing the future will take care of itself.
As contentious as this may seem, it is the truth and believe you me, there is a big difference between a university and ‘campus’. A university student and a campus boy or girl are two different types of people. Despite sleeping in the same hostels, learning in the same classrooms, studying the same courses, living under the same rules and regulations and being protected by the same walls, a university student and a campus boy or girl are in two different worlds, as different as East is from West.
You wouldn’t like it in campo, because if you’re a girl in ‘campus’, then there is a rule : O sister, you must not put on anything that covers your knees or even thighs, because you have nothing private to cover; those belong to the public. And if you’re a boy, then the rule is : O brother, you must not have a girlfriend. And if you do, then it must not be one, but sex is compulsory with or without; you must not wait for consummation. It is also a rule that you must not attend classes, but liquor is mandatory - you must not miss your daily dose.
Now you tell me, what good would come from ‘campus’ therefore? Even the Bible notes that nothing good can come out of a rotten thing. Tell me, what kind of person will the callous egocentric campus graduate become? Does Kenya even need such a person? Does the future even need him/her?
I am now certain that it is not the university graduates who are half-baked, but the campus graduates. Well, it is normally too late when the campus boy or girl realizes their true worth. And while looking at themselves, and the ruins they have become, they blame and curse the day they were born.
No, don’t curse the day you were born, curse the day you chose to step into campus and bury the university, because that is the day when the rain started beating you. If still in ‘campus’, I guess it’s never too late to cross over to the university as it is not miles away; it is just a decision away. A university is a definitely a better place to be in than a ‘campus’. And I would say, woe unto them who choose ‘campus’ over university, because they berate not just education, but themselves too.
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