By NG’ANG’A MBUGUA Posted Sunday, March 14 2010 at 17:09
It might interest you to know that not every man in Central Province is happy with the scores posted by girls in the region in the recently released Form Four examination results.
According to the Education minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, Central was the only province that achieved gender parity in the exams, with 51 per cent of the candidates being girls.
But according to two men with whom I had a chat recently, when girls become more educated, they are unlikely to marry men from the province, many of who, according to recent reports, have been rendered impotent by dubious liquors sold on the cheap in what we like to call “brew dens”.
Their view is disconcerting especially because — if it is widespread — it could be sending a signal to regions which have not achieved gender parity that this is not a goal worth pursuing if it is going to upset social and cultural order.
It is sad enough that no girl featured in the top 10 performers in the national examinations this year. But it is encouraging that a girls’ school had the best Maths score even though the teacher was a rookie who left university two years ago.
If this nation is to prosper, especially in key fields like science, education, business and other sectors that make tangible contributions to job-creation and improvement of life, it is imperative for the population to salute — and encourage — outstanding achievements of all its members, especially its women.
This may sound like a platitude, coming barely days after International Women’s Day which passed without as much as a mention of the role that women have played in shaping this nation.
Although America is not always the best place to turn to when looking for role models, it must be said that though there were attempts to deny many of its pioneering women a chance to achieve their potential in professional fields, the national culture made it possible for them to persist and eventually triumph.
The case of Phillis Wheatley easily comes to mind. Shipped to America as a young slave, Phillis lost her identity at sea. She acquired her first name from the name of the vessel that transported her to captivity and her surname from the family that bought her at the auctioning block.
Yet, within months of arriving in America, she could read English and Latin and soon after, became a poet of repute. She became the first African-American to publish a book and only the second woman to be published in America. If she had not made this huge achievement in the 1700s, the history of African-Americans would not be what it is today.
Another woman whose achievement is worth recalling is Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first in the world to receive a medical degree.
After trying unsuccessfully to join numerous universities, she eventually received an admission letter from Geneva College though it was meant as a practical joke. But when she showed up, they could not turn her away, opting instead to teach her away from her male colleagues.
This, however, did not stop her from graduating at the top of her class and going on to make significant contributions to the training of women doctors and entrenching preventive medicine worldwide.
Today, as America celebrates these and other pioneers, what happens in Kenya besides holding workshops and demonstrations and mouthing platitudes about “giving” women more seats in Parliament? What will this nation celebrate about its women 50 years from today if men of reasonable learning and social standing still believe that the best that can happen to a woman is to man a reception desk?
True, those who design education policies must not assume that the success of girls can only be achieved at the expense of boys.
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