Resolutions, policies, laws and every other state or global guidelines have been enacted in the past two decades regarding women and possibly putting them in a position that they are able to be the best they can be. Has it helped? Does it help? Well am not sure I advocate for affirmative action especially where women are concerned. Many a times women are given positions because of their gender and instead of this working for them, they end up being treated as second class. In many cases you will hear snide remarks like.,‘she was just given the position’. A phrase you are not likely to hear where one works their way up. Is not it better to work hard and make it with your own sweat.
Despite these reservations, one just has to look at the debate on affirmative action regarding admission to national schools and its clear that without it, a number of communities will remain at the bottom of the chain while their nemesis revel at the top. Picture a child born in a poor Turkana household, where schools are under trees and the teacher ratio is 1:200 or something like that. Meanwhile, their private school compatriots are picked up at 5.30 am with a posh bus, grilled through the class eight syllabuses the previous year, have access to all past exam papers (even sometimes future) and have a teacher ration of 1:20. Even with all our selfishness as a country, could we just take a moment before castigating the affirmative action policy? When will the poor children ever get quality? The private schools have already rushed to file lawsuits against the government.
Who is filing one for the child in Turkana? All i hear is silence.....
