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Kakamega High School students were sent home after a dormitory was set on fire. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]
The debate over whether boarding schools or day schools are better is as old as the history of education in Kenya. For years, boarding schools have dominated this debate with their polished, elitist arguments, and mostly succeeded in making day schools seem like lesser institutions.
See, the biggest problem with our boarding school education system is not just that it is colonial, although it certainly is. Our boarding schools still carry the colonial relics of fellows like Carey Francis and the missionary educators who believed young African boys and girls should be removed from their parents and raised by institutions.
But that is not even the biggest problem. The biggest problem with our boarding schools is that they have become forced relocation camps where parents send their children to grow up.
