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This weekend, I took a brief break from Kenyan politics and the FKF Electoral Board matters to attend Daystar University’s School of Communication alumni homecoming.

Walking the blessed streets of Daystar’s Athi River campus again was refreshing, and reconnecting with former classmates and students was thrilling.

You see, formal education not only gives us society’s image but also reproduces it. Émile Durkheim argued, “Education is only the image and reflection of society. It imitates and reproduces the latter in order to make it function better”.

Yet, we seem to fail in reproducing a better society. Our education system gives us society’s image, but we have preoccupied ourselves with individualistic transformations rather than societal ones. While college lacks the cutthroat competition of primary or secondary education, our post-university pursuit of capital rarely allows us to revisit our foundations and contribute to transformations.

This reunion was unique, reminding us how Daystar’s founders intended it to be a university that nurtures servant leaders. Speakers highlighted how non-core courses designed for Daystarians have made a difference in marketplace success. Senator Samuel Poghisio, an alumnus and Daystar pioneer lecturer, extolled the university’s impact on his leadership style, giving us the phrase “were it not for Daystar” to ponder.

These engagements made me reflect on education and national service. To what extent does our education free us from capitalism’s harsh realities and cutthroat competition, allowing us to ask: “Were it not for the foundations built in those elementary schools that our successes have made us forget?” How does our education socialise us to prioritise society’s best interests, even when self-interest drives us? As we enjoyed the homecoming, how many former classmates couldn’t attend, and do we know why?

Our education system risks nurturing a society with a few great servants while the majority struggle. Primary education, for instance, has become a showboating field. The privileged and wannabes want their kids in expensive schools where seamless switches to Zoom classes during protests are the norm.

We pay through the nose for these schools, rarely asking ourselves, “Were it not for that primary school without enough classrooms?” The primary school that I attended was where, in Class Three, we had to wait for Class One kids to finish learning in a classroom at 11 am so that we could have our turn under a roof. Have we revisited those schools? Could this capitalistic competition we are nurturing in education be why our politics are so fierce?

What if we channelled the tens or hundreds of thousands we pay for expensive primary education to the public schools we attended? Would our kids be disadvantaged? How much would it cost, and how would it improve these public schools’ infrastructure?

We would all pay less, but the impact would be tremendous. The government would focus on providing teachers and basic infrastructure, while parents, with even 10 percent of what we pay for expensive schools, could improve facilities and incentivise teachers. Aren’t we already doing this in private schools anyway?

Is what we are doing addressing society’s greater needs or advancing the logic of individual capital pursuit at all costs? Shouldn’t we remind ourselves that many of us dropping off kids at expensive schools once studied under trees or in dusty classrooms? Were it not for these schools? What are our responsibilities to them, given our understanding of our economically unequal society?

With social media and improved idea and resource mobilisation, we can change our socioeconomic and political landscape through education. Paolo Freire argues that education must instil the practice of freedom, enabling people to deal critically and creatively with reality and participate in transforming their world.

We can guarantee every child an equal opportunity to realise their full potential, ensuring their education doesn’t depend on politicians’ bursaries that thrive on the destitution of the electorate.

A homecoming to our primary schools with the mantra “Were it not for the primary school you attended and the teachers who taught you” could be a game-changer. It’s time we reconsidered our approach to education, focusing not just on individual success but on transforming society as a whole.

— The writer is a PhD student in Political Communication