My education life was quite an active one, till I completed the 8.4. part of 8.4.4. I went to good primary schools, with tuition in class 6-8 and boarding in class 7 & 8. My life in primary was quite full, esp with tuition in class 7 & 8.I passed KCPE and was admitted to a good National School in Nairobi. My High School life was divided into 3 months holiday and 9 months schooling per year, except for 4th form where i spend I had a 1 month holiday between January and November. I was therefore well occupied for the first 12 years of my education.
After sitting for my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education(KCSE) in November 2004, I had to wait for results till March 2005. I was well above the B+ university cut off. Previously in early 2004, we had chosen universities and courses we would like to attend by filling the Joint Admissions Board forms. After the results were out in early 2005, we had to wait till August 2005 for the 2004 KCSE lot to change their university and course selection, for those who had it made it above the cut off.
From there, we had to wait till 2006 September to report to Kenyatta University(KU) for those who were admitted there through the Joint Admission Boards. The 2004 KCSE lot that reported earliest was that that reported to Jomo Kenyatta University in April 2009. Others reported as late as January 2007 to some universities.
So there you have it, I reported to campus exactly 2 years after completing my KCSE. After reporting to KU,I found that I has a 10 week semester, and was supposed to attend 2 semesters per academic year. This equates to 20 weeks per academic year. A physical year is mapped onto 1 KU academic year. The academic year consists of:
2 regular semesters(each 3 months)
1 trimester(3 months)
3 school based sessions(1 month each)
For a regular student sponsored by the government, they normally take the first option of 2 regular semesters. The trimester is not sponsored by the government, hence a regular student taking studies in this trimester would be charged as a parallel student(about 5 times what the student pays in a regular semester). A parallel student will pays much more than a government sponsored regular student, and may take the 2 regular semesters + the trimester if they are able to pay for them.
Therefore, in a 52 week year, a KU student will spend 20 weeks in school and 32 weeks on holiday. Most students take at least 4 years in study. Most students at KU take 7 units per semester. Each unit is allocated about 3 hours in a week. In a 168 hour week, the student will spend 21 hours in class, ie if a lecturer attends all his/her classes. the number of lecturers that teach for the 3 hours in a week is a story for another day.
In short, after doing my KCSE, I spend 2 years idling at home. by the time I complete my 3rd year in September, I will have spend 60 weeks in school and 96 weeks at home, and will be left with 20 more school weeks. For the 60 weeks that I was in campus, 1260 hours were spend in class, and 8820 hours divided between study(really?) and idling.
In short, for about 3000 regular 3rd year KU students, since doing their KCSE, they have spend 1260 hours attempting to go through their 8.4.4. and 26,292 on holiday or awaiting to join campus. These students are a part of the more than 17,000 students that went on riot on Sunday 29th March 2009.
In my next article, I shall look at the University structure that has resulted into an idle Kenyatta University student
After sitting for my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education(KCSE) in November 2004, I had to wait for results till March 2005. I was well above the B+ university cut off. Previously in early 2004, we had chosen universities and courses we would like to attend by filling the Joint Admissions Board forms. After the results were out in early 2005, we had to wait till August 2005 for the 2004 KCSE lot to change their university and course selection, for those who had it made it above the cut off.
From there, we had to wait till 2006 September to report to Kenyatta University(KU) for those who were admitted there through the Joint Admission Boards. The 2004 KCSE lot that reported earliest was that that reported to Jomo Kenyatta University in April 2009. Others reported as late as January 2007 to some universities.
So there you have it, I reported to campus exactly 2 years after completing my KCSE. After reporting to KU,I found that I has a 10 week semester, and was supposed to attend 2 semesters per academic year. This equates to 20 weeks per academic year. A physical year is mapped onto 1 KU academic year. The academic year consists of:
2 regular semesters(each 3 months)
1 trimester(3 months)
3 school based sessions(1 month each)
For a regular student sponsored by the government, they normally take the first option of 2 regular semesters. The trimester is not sponsored by the government, hence a regular student taking studies in this trimester would be charged as a parallel student(about 5 times what the student pays in a regular semester). A parallel student will pays much more than a government sponsored regular student, and may take the 2 regular semesters + the trimester if they are able to pay for them.
Therefore, in a 52 week year, a KU student will spend 20 weeks in school and 32 weeks on holiday. Most students take at least 4 years in study. Most students at KU take 7 units per semester. Each unit is allocated about 3 hours in a week. In a 168 hour week, the student will spend 21 hours in class, ie if a lecturer attends all his/her classes. the number of lecturers that teach for the 3 hours in a week is a story for another day.
In short, after doing my KCSE, I spend 2 years idling at home. by the time I complete my 3rd year in September, I will have spend 60 weeks in school and 96 weeks at home, and will be left with 20 more school weeks. For the 60 weeks that I was in campus, 1260 hours were spend in class, and 8820 hours divided between study(really?) and idling.
In short, for about 3000 regular 3rd year KU students, since doing their KCSE, they have spend 1260 hours attempting to go through their 8.4.4. and 26,292 on holiday or awaiting to join campus. These students are a part of the more than 17,000 students that went on riot on Sunday 29th March 2009.
In my next article, I shall look at the University structure that has resulted into an idle Kenyatta University student
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