Raida High School and Learning Center (OFFICIAL)

Congratulations to the both of u

Glory to God! we have graduating our services from High School to College in Style! our results as always remarkable! Division one: 7 Division two: 7 and Division three: 15! we did it once again! congratulations to the whole community of RAIDA: Staff and Students!

Our seventh graduation at RHS this Saturday! Guest of honor mayor Jerry Slaa

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Thanks for the image, Science Is Awesome.

we have once again nailed it! here we come with our outstanding performance!!!!!!!!!!!! all of our students will join institute of higher learning!!!!!!!!!!!! hard work pays! congratulations to both our teachers and students and the entire RAIDA community!

Lulu and Bibi Lulu during the award ceremony

Life Time achievement Award;
I feel greatly honoured to have been chosen among many to receive this award in recognition of my humble contribution to the educational sector. When I received a telephone call on Wednesday, a soft voice congratulated me, for having been selected as awardees for recognition of my personal contribution in the field of education. I remained expressionless for a while, and later asked her politely what the award is for? Though she had shared I seriously started a soul searching, as to why I was being awarded, and particularly this material period when our educational system is in intensive care unit. I recalled my Shakespeare most favored quote from Macbeth which I read more than forty years ago. “ What is reputation? Reputation is an idle and false imposition, often gotten without deserving and lost without a cause” paraphrased) honestly speaking do I deserve this award? And during this time?
My dear colleagues, as I said, the education sector is in an intensive care unit, it needs serious operation; it needs oxygen, and probably blood transfusion. The nation is searching for answers! A bit too late!! The massive failures this year started three years ago, ( but deterioration) many years back. Two years ago, just 11% of form four candidates qualified for high school. There was no alarm. The following year, it was 9 % there was no alarm, instead, a few kids who scored first class were called to our national parliament to be awarded for outstanding achievements as we are here today. All our parliamentarians were cheerful that a handful of what they considered to have been talented kids scored 1 class, those 89% of the kids who had according to our common language failed, were not a subject of discussion. I shared this with few parliamentarians, who wanted me to go and search for statistics, I felt it’s a joke since results are publically produced and our Examination Council Website I did not do so, and no body raised this, it never became a serious national debate, until this year when the statistics dropped to 5%. No body is raising issues with what is the fate of the 95%, but there is a commission which is searching for reasons????
Now a commission is all over the country to search for reasons!!!!! And some of us are being awarded for having done something in our life time in this sector at this particular period! This is quite ironical. As we search for ‘ the person who be witched ‘ our education, lets for the first time do some serious reflections, why did we wait until our patient was taken to an intensive care unit” as a nation? What went wrong, at what level. Ladies and gentlemen, lets start with our newly acquired culture of prioritizing issues. At household level and community level., if a person fells sick and does not have money to purchase the needed medicine, it will take a super human persons to raise money today and purchase that medicine. But when that person dies, even if he comes from the most poverty stricken families, there will be money, for excessive consumption ‘ comparatively, depending on the status during burial. Back to school, if a parent is unable to buy a text book, pay for a child meal, the immediate thing is to terminate that child, or request donor money to support our ‘ orphans’. But if this child says she has a suitor who has a wedding proposal, the whole village, community will raise money for the wedding which will be consumed for a day. Same amount of money could have opened the doors for this child. Where are our priorities? How come that our neighbors Kenya fund raise to take children to school including studies abroad? Ours is not luck of resources, per se, its how we have decided as a nation to prioritize our consumption patterns and define our priorities. It starts from our households and filters through to the national priorities. A consumaristic culture is gradually sinking into our patterns of living.
Coming back to us the learned society, when public services deteriorate we resort to individual solutions since we can afford. If electricity is erratic because of reasons within our control, we resort to individualistic solutions, solar energy or generator. If health sector services deteriorate, we go abroad for treatment. And when the public school fails us, we take our kids to either private or abroad, or buy that service from private providers. As a result we have no time to engage those whom we have entrusted to accountability. The ex British Prime Minister , Tony Blair when he became a Prime Minister, of UK he took his child to a private school, it was going to cost him his job, because he was tasked to explain what is wrong with the public system that he fears his child will be affected. He had to take that child from private to public Today, all our public officials will be taken to India, South Africa, or UK for health check, even if they are not sick, when a few question this, the answer is very arrogant, its normal, its accepted? By who, for who and why???
This has been the tendency, we are too busy to hold public office bearers accountable for de investing in common good, or p***c goods. In a nutshell, we are all to blame for the state of art for what is happening in our education and other public services for the deterioration of services, de investment, and resulting quality of services. I am not excluded from this blame.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I receive this award today, part of my heart is saying, It is an irony, as I have had a share in the state of art of what we see today in our education sector. Nonetheless, let me accept it with great humility, and thank all those who felt that I have had a share in the good products of our educational system sometimes in my life time. I wish to dedicate this award to my immediate family of 11 persons, that is children, in laws, and grandchildren who have always been there for me, and whom we share part of the education passion. The current RAIDA high school is a collective endeavor from this inner family and friends. Secondly I wish to dedicate this award to my other family, my late mother, sisters, and brothers, who without their material and moral support I would not have been, were I am today. Thirdly, to all my ex and current students, who have inspired me to be a permanent student. Lastly not least, my friends in the women’s movement, whom we have shared common perspectives in many areas including critical reflections on how resources of this country are not reaching the people. To the organizers and sponsors of this event, I say thank you for this initiative. And to all of you who are witnessing this special day, thank you for being here for us, and with us.

To Mwl. Daniel, our thought and prayers are with you during this difficult time.