Hi there, Mzee Kiziwi!
Here is my response!
I am Jacob Mwaniki Ireri from Central Province. In 1990, I started my school at Kerugoya School for the Deaf for 10 years. This is because I failed to finish the standard 8 years of primary education. (8-4-4)
Thanks to the positive encouragement there, where I had to repeat KCPE twice in order to pass primary education examination. Well due to repetition, finally I did well in my KCPE which saw me proceeding to Rev.
Muhoro’s Secondary School in Nyeri District in 2001.
Mind you I was not qualified enough to study at hearing District or Provincial, let alone, National secondary schools. But I was just too good for a Deaf secondary School.
For the next four years, I received my secondary education there until 2004 where I have passed my finals with flying colour.
By flying colours I mean C-.
My performance there was noticed by the Board of Governors who are used to seeing Deaf people getting E's and D's in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination, and I was employed to teach English Language & Literature there for a year.
This is the only subject I was able to pass at KCSE.
My desire to know more about the world has led me to apply for further studies. With Global Deaf Connections’ backing, I got accepted at Machakos Teacher Training College to do the P1 course which resulted in me being a qualified primary school teacher. It took me two years up to 2007.
The college requires Deaf students to have C- or above. Thus as I said before, I qualified.
While at Machakos Teacher Training College, I was informed about the Nippon Foundation World Deaf Leadership Scholarship as I have applied to Gallaudet University to do a degree in Education. I was offered a place however I could not afford the huge fees there.
I decided to apply for the WDL Scholarship despite the many people saying that it would be difficult for me to win. It was a miracle when I was selected as Gallaudet University’s 2007 Scholarship recipient. I was really overjoyed.
Finishing college on 3rd August, I arrived at Gallaudet on the 24th, starting my first year as a “freshman”. So far I like it here at Gallaudet. I know Kenyans consider Gally cheap, but I beg to disagree. Our useless degrees are signed by the President of the United States!
My hope is to study Education to the MA level then return home to my native country Kenya in order to help and empower the Deaf community in Kenya especially in education, job generation and health care.
Oh, before I have left for the USA, I have been active in our community, for instance I established a self-help project in my home town which have given a lot of hope to Deaf Kenyans. I was the secretary general for the Central Kenya Deaf Association.
There is no secretary general post in CKDA, as Mzee Kiziw pointed out. But to me they are the same.I apologise to all of you for any wrong doin.
I have participated in the Ministry of Youth Affairs’ national essay competition for that I wrote about what I intend to do the one-million shillings if given by the Ministry. To my delight, I was in the top 300 winners out of 5000 (mainly hearing) participants. In fact, I came 40th in the runner-ups.
I have many dreams for our community in my home country where the quote “disability is not inability” comes true.
I will return the TAKEN FROM CKDA for typing and email.
Thanks,
Jacob Mwaniki Ireri
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Jacob Mwaniki Ireri - The Truth
This blog is about telling the truth, even though anonymously. Mzee Kiziwi understand you were with CKDA only 6 months. And during that time Mzee Kiziwi further understand you caused more havoc than any other leader deaf, not even the corrupt and discredited KNAD boss, Peter Wango, even failing to attend the associations meetings, your work being done by others, yet going around calling yourself secretary general (the CKDA constitution does not have such a position, just a secretary. Trying to add sugar to feel important). You stole the entire CKDA reserves of Kshs 15,580 (thats the figure Mzee Kiziwi sources quote). Can you deny this? We do not understand how you could do this yet the other officials are much older than you and have been in the association for a long time. Are you that cunning and were you just using the association to reach your selfish ends? Can you be this short sighted? These happiness in the USA are short lived and will not take you anywhere. Who will you come to lead when they all know you are a thief? Mzee Kiziwi knows you are young and have a lot to learn. Good luck!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Jacob Mwaniki Ireri writes
This abusive and mocking Blog needs to be updated...Deaf Kenyans need to be professional and logical in reasoning out issues they think they have great concerns.Is there a way that you(Editor) can recieve various comments or pieces of information and moderate them before posting or publishing for the readers?
Jacob
-Gallaudet University
Dear Jacob,
Allow me to first congratulate you for being a World Deaf Leadership Scholar. (Whether this empty title entails. See the case of Nickson)
Secondly please understand that this is the voice of Kenya's Deaf Community. I allow every comment no matter how foolish or illiterate it is. Unless you use up your three rights of reply I will not delete it.
Therefore Jacon Mzee Kiziwi is not so much your enemy than that some say has made you con Central Kenya Deaf Association.
M.K.
Jacob
-Gallaudet University
Dear Jacob,
Allow me to first congratulate you for being a World Deaf Leadership Scholar. (Whether this empty title entails. See the case of Nickson)
Secondly please understand that this is the voice of Kenya's Deaf Community. I allow every comment no matter how foolish or illiterate it is. Unless you use up your three rights of reply I will not delete it.
Therefore Jacon Mzee Kiziwi is not so much your enemy than that some say has made you con Central Kenya Deaf Association.
M.K.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Dr Ndurumo Sacked?
Mzee Kiziwi Hears that Dr. Michael M. Ndurumo, B.A, M.A, PhD, has been sacked from Moi University (Maseno?)for offering poor service. True?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Raila Rais 2012?
The Sheng name of Maina is Maish, Adhiambo is Adhis, true?
Kariuki is Karis, Otieno is Otis.
Then doesn't it logically follow that Raila is
…..…….
RAIS?
Kariuki is Karis, Otieno is Otis.
Then doesn't it logically follow that Raila is
…..…….
RAIS?
Monday, October 8, 2007
Tall Ugandan-American Corrupt Giraffe Writes
Mzee Kiziwi receved this email ...written by Franciscoranit now mzungu mzee wife marry living San Francisco him run away Uganda corruption court steal millions but now change usa citizen thr mzee grandmother wife marriage ...from a source:
Read on...
From: Oranitf@yahoo.com
Dear Mzee Kiziwi,
I wrote this email manty years ago to The Executive Committee RSESA
National Association of the Deaf.
I'm well convinced that most of you are a ware that NDF terminated cooperation with RSESA because of breach of contract and financial irregularities.
It's sad indeed for this to happen at the moment newly elected Executive Committee have not taken up their mantle on RSESA affairs.
I in my capacity as the longest (tallest) caring Chairman in tenure, I'm very disappointed of this news.
For its been a blessing to have started with another cooperation pact with NDF after decade long support from SDR Swedish National Association of the Deaf. Most of you will agree with me that without RSESA in existence; little tangle development in the region among NAD's would have succeeded. So its our dire need to solve this problem once for all.
In the last decade, RSESA has been able to achieve a lot. Awareness and Capacity building for NAD's was strengthened more NAD's joined WFD.
I will comment and put up a few suggestions and respond to e-mail from UNAD.
Taking legal action on those involved. It's the sole responsibility of the Executive Committee to determine what action to take. I agree we need action and the culture of impunity must stop. The culture of Impunity started with SDR because of their conflict of interest within RSESA.
The idea that RSESA be moved to another country. I disagree on this. RSESA office be retained in Kenya because of it's geographical location within the region.
I as the past Chairman, I strongly recommend that the current Director be relieved of his duties and retired in interest of RSESA. He has no integrity to continue serving RSESA its overdue.
To reclaim back NDF, a new director be recruited. The post be advertised in all RSESA membership countries.
In meantime, critical review be carried out. There has been long problem of poor financial control within RSESA. It's been the fault of SDR who failed to implement suggestion from the board to recruit qualified accountant of part time basis.
A suggest the current Executive Committee member from Kenya be assigned to take care of the secretariat while critical review is carried out. It's time to start engaging NDF on the way forward.
These are my individual opinions expressed basing on my experience as former Chairman. However the final decision rests with the Executive Committee of RSESA.
Yours in Solidarity.
Francis Oranit
Former Chairman
1994 to 2003
Read on...
From: Oranitf@yahoo.com
Dear Mzee Kiziwi,
I wrote this email manty years ago to The Executive Committee RSESA
National Association of the Deaf.
I'm well convinced that most of you are a ware that NDF terminated cooperation with RSESA because of breach of contract and financial irregularities.
It's sad indeed for this to happen at the moment newly elected Executive Committee have not taken up their mantle on RSESA affairs.
I in my capacity as the longest (tallest) caring Chairman in tenure, I'm very disappointed of this news.
For its been a blessing to have started with another cooperation pact with NDF after decade long support from SDR Swedish National Association of the Deaf. Most of you will agree with me that without RSESA in existence; little tangle development in the region among NAD's would have succeeded. So its our dire need to solve this problem once for all.
In the last decade, RSESA has been able to achieve a lot. Awareness and Capacity building for NAD's was strengthened more NAD's joined WFD.
I will comment and put up a few suggestions and respond to e-mail from UNAD.
Taking legal action on those involved. It's the sole responsibility of the Executive Committee to determine what action to take. I agree we need action and the culture of impunity must stop. The culture of Impunity started with SDR because of their conflict of interest within RSESA.
The idea that RSESA be moved to another country. I disagree on this. RSESA office be retained in Kenya because of it's geographical location within the region.
I as the past Chairman, I strongly recommend that the current Director be relieved of his duties and retired in interest of RSESA. He has no integrity to continue serving RSESA its overdue.
To reclaim back NDF, a new director be recruited. The post be advertised in all RSESA membership countries.
In meantime, critical review be carried out. There has been long problem of poor financial control within RSESA. It's been the fault of SDR who failed to implement suggestion from the board to recruit qualified accountant of part time basis.
A suggest the current Executive Committee member from Kenya be assigned to take care of the secretariat while critical review is carried out. It's time to start engaging NDF on the way forward.
These are my individual opinions expressed basing on my experience as former Chairman. However the final decision rests with the Executive Committee of RSESA.
Yours in Solidarity.
Francis Oranit
Former Chairman
1994 to 2003
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Gallaudet University Mitigates her poor image!
Dear Mzee Kiziwi,
Responding to Questions about Gallaudet’s poor Rankings,
I. Current Title II reporting procedures unfairly penalize institutions with liberal admissions policies.
The sample of institutions being compared in the District of Columbia is much smaller than samples in the 50 states. There are only 7 institutions in the DC sample: American University, Catholic University,
Gallaudet University, George Washington University, Howard University, Trinity College, and the University of the District of Columbia. Most of these institutions have highly selective admissions policies.
Gallaudet’s mission is to provide postsecondary educational opportunities to deaf students, and for this reason its admissions policies are not so strict as they are at many of these other universities. Is it fair to
compare Gallaudet’s pass/fail rate with the pass/fail rates of highly selective universities – especially when the reporting system only counts those who passed during that one report year, and ignores those who may have passed in a later year?
II. Limiting the time frame to one year only unfairly discriminates against test-takers whose native language is not standard English, and against those institutions that heavily recruit from among minority populations. This year’s Title II Report only shows the performance of individual students on tests during that one report year. Some of these students will go on to pass the required standardized test or tests in a later year. Title II legislation recognizes this fact; that is why institutions are permitted to submit final pass rates on a cohort 3 years after the initial report year. However, just looking at the initial report year alone gives a distinct comparative advantage to institutions whose cohorts are made up of students
more likely to pass the test in the first year. Institutions whose educational mission or admissions policy attracts large numbers of students for whom English is not a native language are therefore at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to comparing scores, if the window of reporting is only the first year. This disadvantage definitely would apply to Gallaudet, where most of the cohort are deaf students, many of whom may have American Sign Language as their native language, not English.
III. Standardized tests that have been developed primarily for hearing test-takers have questionable validity when applied to deaf test-takers. According to the National Task Force on Equity in Testing Deaf Professionals, there is research that demonstrates that multiple choice standardized test items like those used in Praxis tests required for DC licensure severely disadvantage deaf test takers. To be specific,four fundamental flaws are cited by experts in the area of licensure testing for deaf test-takers:
1. Insufficient context in the stem of multiple-choice items for a person not fluent in English
2. Time restrictions on the examination can cause an unfair disadvantage for test-takers whose native
language is not English, and who therefore must spend a longer amount of time understanding the
questions being asked on the test
3. Inappropriate content of some items (for example, items about music and rhyme)
4. Use of unnecessary English language idioms, low-incidence usage of common words with multiple meanings (such as “cotton” used as a verb meaning “to take a liking’), or infrequently used, unfamiliar words that require speakers of English as a second language longer to figure out.
Although the time restriction is taken into account by test accommodations made available to Praxis test- takers with disabilities, the other pitfalls listed above still remain. Is it fair to either the deaf test-takers, or to an institution whose undergraduate population is overwhelmingly deaf, to compare their pass/fail rates to
those of hearing students or institutions who do not have large numbers of deaf students?
IV. Using a pass rate based only on those program completers taking tests for D.C. licensure ignores the fact that some Gallaudet students choose NOT to take the D.C. tests because they intend to teach in other states. While this may be true for most other institutions, this factor has an even greater impact in the District of Columbia because D.C. is not a state, and most teacher education program completers from D.C. institutions go elsewhere to teach. At Gallaudet, many students who complete a program leading to initial licensure choose not to take the required DC tests at that time either because they know they do not want to remain in DC.
V. Do some of the institutions Gallaudet is compared require their students to pass the tests before they can complete the program, thus guaranteeing a 100% pass rate at that institution? Although we do not know to what extent this is a factor in D.C., in some states certain institutions may require their students to pass all licensure assessments as a condition to completing their teacher preparation program. Gallaudet
does not do this. How does Gallaudet know if its pass rates are being compared with institutions that do have such a requirement?
VI. The pass rates on teacher licensure tests for any one year do not reflect the percentage of program completers who end up as teachers. Gallaudet’s aggregate pass rate for basic skills assessments in report year 1999-2000 was 50%, and its summary totals and pass rates was 55%. Compare these numbers with the results of a 1999 alumni survey, which showed that among recent graduates (within the past 5 years),
68% of undergraduate program completers had jobs in the field of education.
Responding to Questions about Gallaudet’s poor Rankings,
I. Current Title II reporting procedures unfairly penalize institutions with liberal admissions policies.
The sample of institutions being compared in the District of Columbia is much smaller than samples in the 50 states. There are only 7 institutions in the DC sample: American University, Catholic University,
Gallaudet University, George Washington University, Howard University, Trinity College, and the University of the District of Columbia. Most of these institutions have highly selective admissions policies.
Gallaudet’s mission is to provide postsecondary educational opportunities to deaf students, and for this reason its admissions policies are not so strict as they are at many of these other universities. Is it fair to
compare Gallaudet’s pass/fail rate with the pass/fail rates of highly selective universities – especially when the reporting system only counts those who passed during that one report year, and ignores those who may have passed in a later year?
II. Limiting the time frame to one year only unfairly discriminates against test-takers whose native language is not standard English, and against those institutions that heavily recruit from among minority populations. This year’s Title II Report only shows the performance of individual students on tests during that one report year. Some of these students will go on to pass the required standardized test or tests in a later year. Title II legislation recognizes this fact; that is why institutions are permitted to submit final pass rates on a cohort 3 years after the initial report year. However, just looking at the initial report year alone gives a distinct comparative advantage to institutions whose cohorts are made up of students
more likely to pass the test in the first year. Institutions whose educational mission or admissions policy attracts large numbers of students for whom English is not a native language are therefore at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to comparing scores, if the window of reporting is only the first year. This disadvantage definitely would apply to Gallaudet, where most of the cohort are deaf students, many of whom may have American Sign Language as their native language, not English.
III. Standardized tests that have been developed primarily for hearing test-takers have questionable validity when applied to deaf test-takers. According to the National Task Force on Equity in Testing Deaf Professionals, there is research that demonstrates that multiple choice standardized test items like those used in Praxis tests required for DC licensure severely disadvantage deaf test takers. To be specific,four fundamental flaws are cited by experts in the area of licensure testing for deaf test-takers:
1. Insufficient context in the stem of multiple-choice items for a person not fluent in English
2. Time restrictions on the examination can cause an unfair disadvantage for test-takers whose native
language is not English, and who therefore must spend a longer amount of time understanding the
questions being asked on the test
3. Inappropriate content of some items (for example, items about music and rhyme)
4. Use of unnecessary English language idioms, low-incidence usage of common words with multiple meanings (such as “cotton” used as a verb meaning “to take a liking’), or infrequently used, unfamiliar words that require speakers of English as a second language longer to figure out.
Although the time restriction is taken into account by test accommodations made available to Praxis test- takers with disabilities, the other pitfalls listed above still remain. Is it fair to either the deaf test-takers, or to an institution whose undergraduate population is overwhelmingly deaf, to compare their pass/fail rates to
those of hearing students or institutions who do not have large numbers of deaf students?
IV. Using a pass rate based only on those program completers taking tests for D.C. licensure ignores the fact that some Gallaudet students choose NOT to take the D.C. tests because they intend to teach in other states. While this may be true for most other institutions, this factor has an even greater impact in the District of Columbia because D.C. is not a state, and most teacher education program completers from D.C. institutions go elsewhere to teach. At Gallaudet, many students who complete a program leading to initial licensure choose not to take the required DC tests at that time either because they know they do not want to remain in DC.
V. Do some of the institutions Gallaudet is compared require their students to pass the tests before they can complete the program, thus guaranteeing a 100% pass rate at that institution? Although we do not know to what extent this is a factor in D.C., in some states certain institutions may require their students to pass all licensure assessments as a condition to completing their teacher preparation program. Gallaudet
does not do this. How does Gallaudet know if its pass rates are being compared with institutions that do have such a requirement?
VI. The pass rates on teacher licensure tests for any one year do not reflect the percentage of program completers who end up as teachers. Gallaudet’s aggregate pass rate for basic skills assessments in report year 1999-2000 was 50%, and its summary totals and pass rates was 55%. Compare these numbers with the results of a 1999 alumni survey, which showed that among recent graduates (within the past 5 years),
68% of undergraduate program completers had jobs in the field of education.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Nickson Kakiri lands a job in Aisa
Mzee Kiziwi has reliably informed that Nickson Kakiri, the much hyped first World deaf Leadership Scholar of Gallaudet University, unable or unwilling to find employment or work in Kenya (yet living in an expensive Yaya Apartment worth 45,000 per month), has landed a job in Asia.
This was made possible by his recent meeting with his Japanese friend Prof. Miya Moto.
This is good news for Nickson. He knows what he wants: to leave Kenya since he does not wish to teach, lord over Global Deaf Connection-Kenya where he is the Board Chairman.
But Mr. kakiri, why did you not go to Kenya Institute of Special Education? Is it because they look down on your Gallaudet University Degree? This is your best avenue because even Dr. Michael Ndurumo, PhD (Psychology) who does not know Kenyan Sign Language but who arrived here while we were still in primary school went through there before he was finally recognized and given a job as a university lecturer, a la Maseno University with a full time interpreter.
M.K
This was made possible by his recent meeting with his Japanese friend Prof. Miya Moto.
This is good news for Nickson. He knows what he wants: to leave Kenya since he does not wish to teach, lord over Global Deaf Connection-Kenya where he is the Board Chairman.
But Mr. kakiri, why did you not go to Kenya Institute of Special Education? Is it because they look down on your Gallaudet University Degree? This is your best avenue because even Dr. Michael Ndurumo, PhD (Psychology) who does not know Kenyan Sign Language but who arrived here while we were still in primary school went through there before he was finally recognized and given a job as a university lecturer, a la Maseno University with a full time interpreter.
M.K
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)