Focus on our education systems: Another reason why graduates come out half-baked

The problem of graduates’ insufficiency has been a major subject of discussion for many days.  Most critiques have directed blames to lack of practicality of the curriculum, while others are complaining that graduates are not exposed to practicals that can enable them to gain skills and experiences required in the job market. As much as I agree with these arguments, I also add one more argument.

I am just out of campus, and now searching for jobs. As I was busy looking for a job, I met a friend, who introduced me to what they call “freelance writing jobs.” Here, writers create accounts and help international do their research assignments. Some of the companies I have come to know include Essay writers, Asia writers, Academia and Writer bay, among others. When I look at the kind of questions these students are given to research on, I like their structural component and the practicality of the tasks. The best thing I love about it is the strictness about “plagiarism” and grammar. For those who do not understand what “plagiarism” is, it means copying other authors’ creative writings and presenting them as your own work. In developed countries, instructors have softwares that are used to check plagiarism such as copyscape, grammarly and grammarbase. These softwares are also very strict on grammar. They can identify redundant information and unnoticed grammatical errors including copy-pasted works.

The question to ask ourselves here is that what is the importance of these softwares in the Kenyan context? I remember well when I was in campus; there was no big deal with assignments and term papers. Assignments were too many and exhausting. The solution was to visit internet, open common pages like Wikipedia and copy-paste whatever was there about the question. I never took time to read whatever I sent to the lecturer to mark. Due to large numbers of students in public universities (like the one I attended), lecturers would not be in a position to read thorough all papers. This, plus the inability to strictly invigilate exams, led to laziness and lack of creativity on the side of the students (including myself).

Now, what is the solution to this? I think the best thing to do here is to look for ways of enhancing graduates’ creativity. To achieve this, I would propose that all universities come up with plagiarism-checker to discourage students from copy-pasting the works of others and avoid extensive reading. This would make students to read exactly what they want to paraphrase. This is because paraphrasing means extensive reading on the subject matter. Likewise, grammar-checkers would discourage redundancy explanations. The habit of writing “anything” to fill the pages would also cease. Additionally, lecturers should avoid giving assignments with direct questions and answers. Leacturers should use case studies to set questions and instruct students to give answers based on those case studies. To avoid the problem of copying other students’ work, lecturers need to design mechanisms of giving different questions to every student and no two students should do similar questions. This will enhance creativity and a habit of reading. To some extent, graduates will make a step as we are searching for better methods enhancing educational strategies to meet the vision 2030 standards. Though students will turn to seeking services of writers, most of them will change due to costs involved in having their assignments completed.

                                                                             Makworo G. Wycliffe

Phone etiquette: Another reason why we fail in interviews

I am not sure whether we job seekers have ever realized the exact time when interview begins! I too don’t know whether we are aware that the interview begins when our applications drop in the company’s inbox. I have come to learn this from experience. For you to know why you have never been invited to any interview from the companies you had applied for jobs, ask yourselves the following questions: Have I ever received a phone call from an unknown number? How did I respond to the phone call? Did I respond rudely, though the caller was rude to me? Has someone ever called me and immediately ended the call, then on calling back, I was not picked or someone replied “wrong number”?

There is increased competition in the job market. It has come to the time when employers want to select the best from the rest. Likewise, there is a realization that many people pretend to be saints when they face interview panels. Behavioural psychologists have argued that it is not easy to identify someone’s behaviour when he or she is conscious. These are some of the ways through which prospective employers test prospective employees.

I remember one day, during my aggressive search for jobs when I found a missed call. It was a new number. I called in the evening to find out who was this calling me at around 2 pm. The phone was busy. Two minutes later, the same number called. “Hello, who is it?” the caller asked me.

“I found your missed call; I wanted to know who you are.” I answered.

“Who are you in the first place?” he asked.

“I am Wycliffe, and you?”” I replied hastily.

“Why do you want to know me?” he asked

“Ok, where are you then?”

“Why do you want to know where I am?”

“Perhaps I can recall if there is someone who knows me in that place.”

“There is no one who knows you here!” he answered

I clicked and hang up the call.

The following day I was directed by a lady whose mother gave me her number. She was working in a tile company at Sameer Business Park. I reached there in time and welcomed to the reception. When my turn for interview came, the HR reminded that he called me and I responded rudely. In fact, I have never received a formal call from that company.

I am sure, they just did a favour to call me, at least to remind me that I should be careful in the future. In most cases, I am sure job seekers are not called again because of this behaviour. This reminds us that we job seekers should handle our phones very careful and avoid any negative replies even when we are abused by callers. An employer would be testing our patience. This is because almost all companies are dealing with businesses, and customers are sometimes rude, it is crucial for us to know how to control our emotions and responses. Likewise, we should be always alert with our phone calls to avoid any missed call.

Another major problem with phone calls is this thing call “Skiza tunes”. Most of us subscribe to Skiza tunes that we love most, and forget that we don’t hear those tunes; it is our callers who listen to them. In fact, I have two of them; I even don’t know when I subscribed to them until recently my caller told me that my tune is very melodious. I have tried to call Safaricom to help me delete these tunes, but they also make me listen their skiza tune all day long without receiving my call. The Skiza tune you subscribe can easily identify what kind of a person you are. The moment a prospective employer listens to your Skiza tune, he/she imagines who you are before meeting you in person. This can lead to a conclusion of either not calling you at all, or just call you to look at you. Therefore, before you subscribe to any Skiza tune, give it time and try to figure out whether it is something to build your name or taint it. In fact, when actively searching for jobs, it is important to avoid such small mistakes that can make you lose a life-time opportunity.

Additionally, the social media is another source of disqualification. Some employers may search you in the social sites. The kind of messages you post and the pages you have liked are the easiest indicators of your likes and dislikes. Imagine a prospective employer finding that you have liked pages like the ones I usually see in my friends’ Facebook accounts. These pages usually have hundred thousands of likes. I wonder why most people hate liking educative and socially moral pages, and develop interest in those evil pages. I don’t say they are evil as such because we have different tastes and preferences, but I mean they are not pleasing in the eyes of our seniors. Recently, I began Operation Eliminate Friends (OEF) who have liked these dirty pages. Before I accept a friend request, I must stock you first to know what kind of a person you are.

Conclusively, let handle our mobile phones carefully always by being humble to whoever who calls. We should also check our skiza tunes to ensure that they send the right message to our seniors. Finally, let us not like dirty pages in the social media that can taint our public image in the face our prospective employers.

Addressing the Education Problem in the System of Federalism

Federalism gives the executive government its power and allows the states to run their own education systems. Federalism enables local people to retain their pride, traditions, and power in their academic institutions while allowing the central government to handle common problems (Bruns, Fimer & Patrinos 12). Solving the education problem require the environment that is dedicated to quality, promotes efficiency and provides for participative decision-making. The education problem should be addressed at the state level because decentralization of education ensures democracy, improve efficiency and enhance the quality of schooling.

The primary principle of education in the Unites States is to ensure that democracy prevails in all institutions of learning. Educational stakeholders should be allowed to participate in administrative decision making in managing the systems of education. The central government cannot provide a forum where all concerned stakeholders can contribute in making critical decisions. The problem of education should be decentralized to the states since they can let involvement of parents, students, teachers and funders in decision-making. Another potential benefit of decentralization is improved efficiency, which arises from increased accountability (Bruns, Fimer & Patrinos 24). The services provided by the education system match with the needs and desires of the local people. Educational administrators at the local level understand the exact needs of the public; they design educational curricula and systems that have the potential of meeting the utility of the public. The relevance of education systems enhances the quality of knowledge and skills that the citizens acquire (Bruns, Fimer & Patrinos 19). The United States is the best example illustrating the benefits of education decentralization in addressing the education system as it observes the democratic principles in administration.  

Decentralization of education to the state level is the best way through which the education problem can be solved. Decentralization of education ensures democracy, efficiency and quality, which are crucial elements in resolving the education problem.    

Works Cited

Bruns, Barbara, Deon Filmer, and Harry A. Patrinos. Making Schools Work: New Evidence on Accountability Reforms. Washington D.C: World Bank, 2011. Print.

Models of Institutional Control

Models of institutional control refer to non-engineered instruments applied by administrators to minimize the chances of human resource conflicts. The primary goal of institutional control models is enhancing performance of the organizational publics. Institutional control models include the control model, the responsibility model, and the consensual model. Each of these models can be used to handle various issues in the organization; however, some models are more suitable in managing particular tasks than others.

The control model deals with the regulation and monitoring of activities and the institutional publics. Administrators develop goals of performance and direct the employees to work towards the achievement of those goals (Jones, Andrew & MacColl, 2006).  Employees may have diverse viewpoints on proper approaches to tasks. Institutional administration institutes the elements of control in the organisation in order to seek the equilibrium between conflicting viewpoints while providing for each stakeholder’s interests (Lane, 2009). The responsibility model requires the institutions to specify parties who are accountable to particular tasks. This model separates the performance tasks and allocates each to the specified performers. For example, a typical institutional structure of a university identifies holders of the offices of the Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, Deputy Vice-chancellors and the heads of departments (Jones, Andrew & MacColl, 2006). Each of these parties has specific responsibilities to handle within the institution. The responsibility model helps to eliminate possible role conflicts in the organization. The consensual model aims at promoting consensus democracy in the institutions. This model creates opportunities for all institutional stakeholders to participate in management decision making. The consensual model reduces the adversities of autocracy and promotes unit among the institutional publics. For example, most institutions have adopted bottom-up approach in their administrative practices to seek consensus from all workers during the process of decision making.

Effective institutionalization results from application of proper models of institutional control (Lane, 2009). The models of institutional control include the control model, the responsibility model and the consensual model. The consensual model is the most effective in institutional administration because it guarantees prevalence of democratic elements. Presence of democracy in institutions ensures proper control of the institution and promotes responsibility among the institutional publics.

References

Jones, R., Andrew, T., & MacColl, J. (2006). The institutional repository. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.

Lane, J. E. (2009). State management: An enquiry into models of public administration. London: Routledge.