The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
Related Articles
By: Beatrice Nzambi, Jewel Technical Collage
In ancient Rome, the circus was more than just entertainment. It was a carefully staged arena of power, competition, and public approval. Victors were celebrated, losers forgotten, and the crowd’s roar mattered as much as skill itself.
Centuries later, Kenya’s education system increasingly mirrors this Roman circus, where schooling has become a spectacle of performance, ranking, and survival rather than a steady pursuit of understanding.
Across the country, students, teachers, and parents are swept into an arena governed by scores, grades, and positions. Education, which should be a journey of discovery, risks becoming a race where only the fastest or highest-scoring are recognized.
The Arena of Examinations
From early primary school, Kenyan learners are taught a central truth: exams determine destiny. National assessments and school-based tests dominate timetables, conversations, and ambitions. Revision schedules replace curiosity, and tuition becomes compulsory. Learning pauses until the next test date is announced.
Like charioteers in ancient Rome, students are pushed to run faster each year. The pressure is relentless. A single exam result can determine access to prestigious schools, universities, scholarships, and even social respect. Failure is rarely seen as part of growth but as public defeat.
This environment fosters anxiety, fear of mistakes, and rote memorization. Knowledge is consumed quickly, reproduced mechanically, and forgotten just as fast. The joy of learning quietly slips out of the classroom.
The Crowd and the Applause
No circus exists without a crowd. In Kenya’s education system, parents, relatives, school boards, and society at large fill the stands. Performance charts are shared on WhatsApp groups, and school rankings are discussed like league tables. Children become walking report cards.
Many parents act out of love and concern, but the unintended effect is a culture of comparison. Children learn early that their worth is measured numerically. Teachers, too, are judged primarily by their students’ mean scores rather than their ability to inspire critical thinking or character development.
Social media has amplified the spectacle. Top students are celebrated publicly, while average or struggling learners fade into silence. The system rewards visibility, not depth.
Teachers as Trainers, Not Mentors
In the Roman circus, trainers focused on victory above all else. Similarly, Kenyan teachers are often reduced to exam coaches. Professional creativity is sacrificed to syllabus coverage, and teaching methods are narrowed to what is examinable.
This is not due to a lack of passion. Many teachers enter the profession to shape minds and nurture potential. However, institutional pressures force them into rigid frameworks, limiting the full scope of education.
