IS YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT LEVEL IN OUR NATION A TICKING TIME BOMB?

IS YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT LEVEL IN OUR NATION A TICKING TIME

            BOMB?

 “They came after the Jews, and I was not a Jew, so, I did not protest. They came after the trade unionists, and I was not a trade unionist, so, I did not protest. Then they came after the Roman Catholics, and I was not a Roman Catholic, so, I did not protest. Then they came after me, and there was no one left to protest.” Pastor Nemoellor coming out of the Nazi death camps.

The lesson history teaches all of us is: If you believe you are safe, then you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking you, look again. There is no family or community, no race or religion, no place in Kenya safe to run to once the bomb explodes. We either genuinely embrace this message, a message of challenge, or we are a nation at risk.

Unemployment is the big burden on the lives of youths most of them trapped in slums and in the informal sector, hardly making ends meet and with the high political energy skyrocketing in Kibra as they await the by-election highly influenced by tribal affiliations and not their future one wonders do the public ever sit down on their own to decide what is fit for them. In the context of an election, I want to appeal to the voters to recognize that poverty is not a political creature. It does not care whether you are Jubilee or NASA; it does not ask whether you are tribe this or tribe that, male or female, young or old, when it starts to bite, then it bites.

With the young people accounting for the largest population in our country and a whopping 67 percent of the country’s unemployed workforce, with more and more poor decision continuing to be made every waking day, you can almost hear that bomb explosion next to your wallet. This may no longer be a distant threat but a present danger and we have helped it along with our silence. We may take refuge in our stereotypes, but we cannot hide there long, we must lift our shroud of silence.

DO WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO RETHINK THE CONCEPT OF FINAL EXAMS?

                  

DO WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO RETHINK THE CONCEPT OF FINAL EXAMS?

Do we have an obsession with marks that places more importance on what is regurgitated above what is digested; cramming and forgetting rather than building understanding.

How many good and potential students will be crushed under the system of exams?

You are more than your class 8 marks or high school grades without having to even touch on higher education rankings. Marks are not equal to ones fate, unless you let them. Examination is a system that is man-made and severely limited in nature to judge ones capabilities.

Have we not intending ended up promoting a culture of studying to pass exams other than learning and applying that knowledge. Was passing exams the goal of our education system or was there a bigger picture?

If a student happens to score poorly due to external factors outside of school, then don’t you think exam no longer is a good index of how well a student knows the material? Yet, the world continues to trot along.

The problem of measuring intelligence is that it is an inadequate guide to human capability, simply stated, measuring intelligence through examination is, inevitably, as limited as the examination itself. We should value both the effort and the outcome and not just outcome only no matter how it came through. Results are good but they are not everything.

 Creativity is ignored in favour of the ability to provide expected answers, says Peter Tait, headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School.

No single exam is important enough to define an individual. Just because one exam went badly, doesn't mean you’re now a failure. Think of other things you’re good at and things you’ve achieved to avoid letting a bad exam knock you off balance. (Or is it that there is nothing wrong with exams we just take them too personal and the way we interpret the results is the problem?).

One of the greatest shortcomings with exams is how they leads us to start measuring ourselves in the eyes of others. They often drive us to draw conclusions about ourselves that are incorrect. We start seeing ourselves in the light of the results we got and we use that single occasion to judge our standing in the bigger picture of life.

“We lose too many talented and intelligent people by defining intelligence through tests that are on themselves inadequate and constricting. We need to look wider and encourage the entrepreneur, the inquisitive, the creative and the downright cussed in our schools to make the most of who they are and to bring out the richness and diversity of thought and ideas in our society. We only have to reflect on some of our leading public figures who dropped out of school and have ended up in prominent positions in public life to know that the traditional system of assessment was not capable of measuring their particular abilities, their sense of purpose, work ethic and creativity.” Peter Tait, headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School.

There are also many ‘intelligent’ people, as measured by our schools, who have the historic indicators of intelligence but are painfully deficient in other aspects.

As someone has said, it’s not the student that didn’t get the correct answers, the questions were wrong. As you walk out of the exam hall and  by bad chance you know it went badly, remember it is only an exam , and it's not the end of the world neither does it carry the  power to tell you how you’ll end in life.

Best of luck to all 2019 class eight and form four candidates.

ARE NATIONAL EXAMS THE MEASURE OF A STUDENTS TRUE ABILITY

ARE NATIONAL EXAMS THE MEASURE OF A STUDENTS TRUE ABILITY

Exams give little indication of a student's real ability.

Should a student’s overall value be allowed to be influenced by grades received in parasitology class test results? Yes I knew, parasitology means study of parasites. How many do we have by the way? Did we kill curiosity, uniqueness, and creativity, to be common? How in the world did a report card end up a measure to success capabilities of one’s life?

By the way I don’t even like parasites, they look bad, they smell bad and the things they do are bad, how in the world would I pass parasitology.

Exams are good, period. But when they are used as the criteria to judge a person’s ability and their life ahead, they flop.

In 3 hours sited in a hard bench with questions on white sheet of papers they had already told me I am not good enough and my future does not look bright, I am still wondering.

Assessments are useful when they’re used as data to help schools improve the quality of the teaching and learning. They become harmful, however, tests are used to judge students’ natural abilities.

Intelligence cannot be defined by grades or exams, and exam results do not determine success in life. In fact, a number of successful people did poorly in school. Steve Jobs, for instance, never finished college yet he became a successful and world-famous inventor and entrepreneur. Another example is that of Richard Branson, the British business magnate, and investor. He left school at 15 and now owns the Virgin brand.

Many great personalities were never considered intelligent by the world system of measuring people through exams but they moved on to become some of the world's finest scientists, industrialists, politicians, religious leaders and even more critical, wonderful parents, neighbours, grocery store managers and hair dressers . A persons worth does not only mean academic intelligence, one can be good in other many differing fields. Actually the truth is there are much more extraordinary things than just academics.

I have to harry, I have an exam waiting for me in the next room. Did I say harry? Maybe that’s the problem, the A students knows its hurry.

Disclaimer

This blog is not an excuse for you not to pass your exams either.

NOTHING MAKES CONVERSATIONS MORE ALIVE THAN DOING THEM FACE TO FACE

NOTHING MAKES CONVERSATIONS MORE ALIVE THAN DOING THEM FACE TO FACE

As Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal, “For all of the beauty of technology and all the things we’ve helped facilitate over the years, nothing yet replaces human interaction."

Have you ever tried to extend compassion, empathy or affection to a loved one through an email? Did you feel limited? I thought so. Like let’s say you want to say thank you to someone for a job well done, there are so many ways to say thank you, a card, an email, or even a post-it note on someone’s desk. But even better is saying it in person. Imagine the difference it made for Eliud Kipchoge face to face contact with his wife after the 1:59:40 marathon success in comparison to her being absent but sending an email or text saying thank you and congratulations. How much do you think could have been lost in that conversation full of non verbal cues? Saying thank you is one thing, making people feel valued, appreciated and respected requires more than just a line or two in an electronic garget.

As good as virtual communication is, it lacks the ability to portray the full picture of what others are endeavouring to convey to us. It tends to have lower energy than the face to face equivalent, people are less engaged and the overall value of the message significantly diminishes. Nothing makes one feel more connected to a cause more than face to face kind of communication. Facial expression and other physical actions both dominate and determine the impact and the direction of the message.

Communicating face-to-face sends a message before you say a word. People will not only hear what you are saying, they will perceive the greater meaning of your tone, voice inflection, emotion and body language. Taking the time to meet and chat with people is an important way to emphasise key messages; being there in person tells your audience they are important to you and the issue you are discussing is worth both your time and theirs and that because of your trust in them, you are counting on them.

Initiating and fostering those moments of one-on-one connections are priceless. Nothing beats presence, not even an M-pesa. Maybe it is true that a new technology is not always a better technology, or is it? While in doubt, try face to face conversations.

NOTHING MAKES CONVERSATIONS MORE ALIVE THAN DOING THEM FACE TO FACE

As Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal, “For all of the beauty of technology and all the things we’ve helped facilitate over the years, nothing yet replaces human interaction."

Have you ever tried to extend compassion, empathy or affection to a loved one through an email? Did you feel limited? I thought so. Like let’s say you want to say thank you to someone for a job well done, there are so many ways to say thank you, a card, an email, or even a post-it note on someone’s desk. But even better is saying it in person. Imagine the difference it made for Eliud Kipchoge face to face contact with his wife after the 1:59:40 marathon success in comparison to her being absent but sending an email or text saying thank you and congratulations. How much do you think could have been lost in that conversation full of non verbal cues? Saying thank you is one thing, making people feel valued, appreciated and respected requires more than just a line or two in an electronic garget.

As good as virtual communication is, it lacks the ability to portray the full picture of what others are endeavouring to convey to us. It tends to have lower energy than the face to face equivalent, people are less engaged and the overall value of the message significantly diminishes. Nothing makes one feel more connected to a cause more than face to face kind of communication. Facial expression and other physical actions both dominate and determine the impact and the direction of the message.

Communicating face-to-face sends a message before you say a word. People will not only hear what you are saying, they will perceive the greater meaning of your tone, voice inflection, emotion and body language. Taking the time to meet and chat with people is an important way to emphasise key messages; being there in person tells your audience they are important to you and the issue you are discussing is worth both your time and theirs and that because of your trust in them, you are counting on them.

Initiating and fostering those moments of one-on-one connections are priceless. Nothing beats presence, not even an M-pesa. Maybe it is true that a new technology is not always a better technology, or is it? While in doubt, try face to face conversations.

WHAT FUTURE IS THERE FOR NEWSPAPER IN THIS DIGITAL ERA?

WHAT FUTURE IS THERE FOR NEWSPAPERS IN THIS DIGITAL ERA?

Is it a dim future for print journalism (newspapers)? Have newspapers been dying in a slow motion in this digital age.

Someone once said that in the future all media will be free.

 (NZME Managing editor Shayne Currie told a conference on the news media last year: “We made a big mistake when we made content available free. But there’s no going back.”). These days, people are more likely to reach into their pockets to pay for coffee than news. Popular news is no longer necessarily the most detailed and researched piece. In fact, short and entertaining is often a requirement to go viral and the modern media Internet is filled with this kind of content and for the print journalism the challenge is how to remain relevant in a new audience of people who have infinite amounts of choice in terms of where they get their information.

Are newspapers in crisis? Yes, unless they reinvent themselves because readership is moving away from the printed form. Do they have a future? Absolutely, but it's a future that looks quite different from the one they've been used to. It's a ridiculous thought to think that newspapers shouldn't evolve exactly as society all around them evolves. There's a terrible tendency to hold back to the good old days but not here. Information is freely and instantly, available from so many sources that a newspaper cannot naturally consider itself the first port of call for information.

Are newspapers doomed? Absolutely not. Every newspaper has a great future online. End of story. It's not the death of the paper. It's the morphing of the paper from a print version to online. Do they have a future, “yes I think they do. But I'm about to catch a train from Washington to New York, it's 7.40am, there are 30 people waiting to catch the train, and half of them are either on BlackBerries or mobile phones. Two of them are reading newspapers and that's it. Both the readers are in their late forties. That for me is quite a symbolic illustration of the future.” John Ryley, Head of Sky News.

Newspapers in this country are not dying, they are committing suicide.

 It’s nice to see that the printed word is still, at least for now, the most powerful medium for reporting on the death of the printed word.

How many of you went to your pockets got money and bought a newspaper today? Maybe my guess is as good as yours. Will there be a future for print newspapers, only time will tell, but not very much time.

SELF IMPROVEMENT A NECESSITY FOR A CONTINUED SUCCESS

Here are some of those qualities you may need to closely consider if you have success in mind. In this part one are the 1^st four qualities that make for self improvement;

·         BELIEF

The mere belief that you can succeed is important to your success. You cannot go far in any endeavor without this 1^st quality well settled in you. When our hearts are full of self-doubt, it becomes detriment to perform at our best in anything. You need to believe in yourself and your dreams if you are going to have a chance at success. When your heart and mind are fully convinced that you can do it, nothing can stop you. You can soar to any height and be everything you ever wanted. Just believe.

·         COURAGE

Fear is an enemy of success any day. Fear of failing will make you a failure even before you get started. Every success story you’ll listen to have a common theme, fear is no win, they all had to make a decision against fear. The antidote for fear is courage. Courage helps you look at failure and mistakes as lessons to learn from and not a reason to quit or not try again. It arms you with the right mindset to reach your goals.

·         ACTION

Belief is not enough on its own. Courage too, alone is equally not good enough. You need to follow them up with consistent and calculated action. Action is powerful. Take the first initiative and plan a concrete course of action to gain focus. Act upon those plans wholeheartedly to reach your goals and achieve success. Remember nothing moves until you do.

·         COMMITMENT

This is that determination and persuasion to achieve what you want and you keep going even when it gets hard. Success and commitment goes hand in hand. You believe so much in your goals for success that what is born out of it is commitment. It helps you keep focus and not give up before you reach success.

.........................(to be continued)