HOW HARD IT IS TO PLEASE AN AFRICAN PARENT

 

Courtesy of Google

Last week, the Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu released the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results of the year 2022 with more than half of the candidates scoring a mean grade D+ and below out of 876,648 candidates who sat for their exams.

According to the Cabinet Secretary, the results recorded in the year 2022 have shown a great improvement in terms of performance as per the results released in the year 2021 whereby the number of students with D+ and below was 495,658.

Come to think of it, I remember the previous year 2021; one of my cousins sat for the KCSE examinations and came out with a total mean grade of C+ and I can vividly recall that not everyone was happy with that. I for sure was extremely excited for the boy and even uploaded my remarks for him on my social media statuses. Well, according to me he did great.

One thing for sure was that coming from an African household, not everyone saw his marks remarkable as I saw them to be. To begin with, his parents, for a matter of fact were registering their gravest disappointments regarding their son’s marks. They of course wanted more than a C+ coming from their son. This was carried along with their obvious ideology that for a boy, he needed more than a C+ to be at least somewhere stable in life.

What still worries me is that how most of our African parents fail to be always there for their children in terms of appreciation. Appreciation especially when education is concerned.  Education being the most valued necessities that are often valued in an African household all the time. To this, the African parents go on ahead in putting up really tight measures when it comes to school performance. Sciences of course being valued the most.

When it comes to choosing of courses, the most likely sciences to be considered include physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry. But not all the candidates can actually do well in terms of these subjects. In fact, most of them find sciences hard and difficult in terms of how they perform. Came to think of it, I think-at least coming from a scientific knowledge there are two types of chromosomes; sex chromosomes and  autosomes. Autosomes control the inheritance of all characteristics. This constituting that the children are most likely to bare the same brain capacities as to both of their parents.

It then becomes ironical for the African parents to insist on great class performance considering their scientific contribution to the child inheritance. In simple terms, if the two parents were good in class, the child is definitely going to be good in class, and vice versa. But the problem is that, most of our African parents fed us up with lies on how they used to top in class each and every time results were out. They want us to know that they were champs in school and we are obviously not.

This has affected the children, candidates to be precise having to perform in the final exams just to please the parents. They are no longer doing it for themselves but the parents. The pressure the parents are putting on their children to perform at school is becoming unbearable. Because, for some reason, parents are greatly investing so much in education that failure cannot just come out of it in return. And if they pass, then the parents take all the credits.

This has then led to high increase of depression, drug and substance abuse, prematurely sex leading to early pregnancies and even suicide among the teenagers. Last year alone, the country recorded a high increase of suicide deaths in boarding schools and several attempts. The younger generations is looking for better ways to at least feel appreciated. Not only coming from a school perspective way of seeing.

For instance, the recent results recordings showing almost half of the candidates scoring a mean grade of D+ and below, not all affected parents are happy, obviously. That is of course justified concerning how much money the parents or guardians have invested in the student, not mentioning sponsors. But I am sure that most of these students who scored D+ and below are going back to repeating the final year of secondary education, not because they want to, but they have no other option.

In conclusion, it is clearly clear that it is very hard pleasing an African parent. They are always demanding more and expecting more that their children can give. These then makes the children being forced into things that they themselves cannot handle. Careers they don’t like, jobs they despise, spouses they don’t love and even achievements they cannot account for.

The African parents should then consider talents, skills and potentials regarding the future of their children. Bearing in mind, not everyone is perfect. Mistakes are due to happen regardless.