Learning About the Education System in Kenya

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Learning About the Education System in Kenya

During our trip to Kenya, we had the pleasure of visiting Mwangaza College, an accredited four-year college within the city of Nakuru that focuses on four main career paths: Fashion and Beauty, Hospitality, Business and Education. The College has over 350 students that regularly attend and they travel from various distances to come to school. The College’s owner, Brother Oscar, welcomed us all to the school with open arms and gave us a tour of the beautiful grounds. There were all kinds of fruit trees that made up the natural scenery as well as a gazebo where our group ate lunch and got to speak with Brother Oscar about the inner workings of Mwangaza.

The most interesting thing I experienced while we were there had to do with how identical education was on a global scale despite language barriers, educational barriers, and other roadblocks that can make schooling less attainable for a lot of children. I had the opportunity to sit in on a Managerial Accounting class within the business school, and I very quickly realized that the only thing that was different from the same class I had taken at Syracuse were the four walls around me. The professor laid down the basic principles of accounting like marginal costing and decision making and then even proceeded to use examples that the students could directly relate to. The College has an on-campus bakery where the hospitality students make various bread products and then sell them to the general public, and the accounting professor was able to use this to illustrate the concept of a “make or buy decision.” That level of integration was fascinating to me, and it was the type of experience that only happens at a small tight-knit school and one that truly looks at education as a privilege rather than a right.

In talking further with Brother Oscar, we learned that his goal with Mwangaza is to truly prepare the students not only with the technical skills they need to succeed in the workforce, but also to prepare them from a mental and professional standpoint so they can thrive anywhere. All of the students at Mwangaza are so willing to learn, and Brother Oscar even noted that there has been significant interest from the student body for professional mentors and people to guide them.

Visiting Mwangaza, meeting Brother Oscar, and getting to talk with the students were some of the highlights of the trip for me, and I’ve gained a much greater appreciation for education in general. I look forward to staying in contact with the people that we met and look forward to seeing them succeed in everything they do.

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