This is not an exaggeration, few days ago, i asked a boy who claimed to be in Primary 4 to recite the English alphabet, i wanted to know how brilliant he is since i always see him doing all sorts of rough plays around, so i was pressed to know if he is as active in class. I would have asked him to spell a word or something more compound but i just thought i should let him recite that first , then i will know what else i would ask. To my greatest shock, he couldn't recite it fluently, he was stuttering and he actually omitted some letters.
I have met graduates who can not express themselves in English, who cant construct a simple English sentence talk less of asking them to defend the certificate they have. And yet they passed through primary school, secondary and tertiary institutions.
Since my encounter with the boy, i couldn't help but wonder why it is so, how he got promoted to his present class with the basic knowledge and he will be crossing over to secondary school next year.
Who is now to blame for this deterioration, because it seems to get worse by the year? Is it the government, the teachers or the parents?