Said to have been founded as a medieval cathedral school during the late antiquity in 597 AD, a century after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, by Augustine of Canterbury, who was considered the “Apostle to the English” and a founder of the English Church, The King’s School, in Kent, England, is arguably the world’s oldest extant boarding school.
In Kenya, boarding schools date back to 1902, when Prince of Wales School (Nairobi School) was established by British settlers after constructing the Uganda Railway.
Some other early boarding schools include Maseno School (1906), Kenya High (1908), Kabaa School (1924), Alliance High School (1926), St Mary’s Yala (1927) and Lenana School (1949).
Today, there are thousands of private and public boarding schools with Ministry of Education data putting boarding secondary schools at more than 4,000.
The central role played by boarding schools in aiding the state to attain its overall educational objectives cannot be overemphasised.
However, the concept has increasingly come under sustained attack in recent years. Education stakeholders have recommended their scrapping as an antidote to the malaise plaguing them, like cases of arson by students.
Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KePSHA) recently resolved to push for their abolition as a remedy to school unrest. Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha welcomed the debate.
Granted, these teachers have vast experience in the profession. They possess unique insight about student behaviour, which guides their deliberations. But given the high number of boarding schools, their spread and many students, such far-reaching proposals are bound to inflict a massive shock on the education sector with huge ramifications.
Students in boarding schools learn to fit into the rhythm of school life and train themselves to manage a timetable full of classes, meals and after-school activities. Living away from paternalistic parents also teaches them to be independent, as an excellent preparation for life after school.
Secondly, boarding schools promote multiculturalism as they admit students from different ethnic backgrounds. The boarding environment is a Petri dish of diverse cultures where young minds are imbued with a multicultural outlook of life in a multiethnic setting, furthering integration and cohesion.
Thirdly, the daily commute to and from school is a big loss of precious time that could otherwise be devoted to study. Besides, ubiquity of gadgetry such as phones and television sets at home distract students’ attention and lower their academic scores.
Lastly, most top boarding schools are concentrated in areas with relative prosperity. Making them day schools would deny students from elsewhere the opportunity to study there, exacerbating inequality.
To curb student unrest, address students’ grievances promptly, decongest schools, hire enough teachers and revive guidance and counselling.
