In a heroic book titled You Can Win, Shiv Khera writes about a certain Indian sage who decided to teach his two disciples the art of archery. He perched a wooden bird on a twig as the target, then asked them to aim at the eye of the bird, and hit it. The first disciple was asked to describe what he saw. He said in substance, “I see trees, branches, leaves, sky, bird and its eyes.” The sagacious sage asked this disciple to wait a bit. Then asked the second one the same question, who replied swiftly, “I see nothing, but the eye of the bird.” The sage said, “Very good, then shoot.” The arrow went straight and hit the eye of the bird. What is moral of the anecdote? In life, in every sphere, it is important to have a set target. Target it. Hit it. As you cruise the car of life, fix your mortal eyes on the target. Focus on the donut, not upon the hole. You should have a laser-like focus. With a set target, you can touch your dreams. That is, if you choose to remain firmly focused.
Avoid sideshows
In the whole scheme of things, you should avoid sideshows at all cost. Never get distracted by trivial things that are not essential. Major on the major, not the minor. As you do all this, never forget that there is no target difficult to achieve. On forgetting about the past and focusing on the future, Apostle Paul pens in Philippians 4:12-13, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind, and straining towards what is ahead. I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Therefore, getting down to the brass tacks of this piece, these are types of targets that ought to be set in the Form 4 Class: One, school mean or expected positive deviation. Two, subject means. Three, number of students to scoop straight As in KCSE. Four, number of students to feature in the giant list of the top 20 or top 100 in the whole country. Five, number of students to matriculate directly into universities or the ones to score quality grades – C+ (plus) and above. Six, recognition target – where does the school want to feature nationally, regionally, in the county, or sub-county? The target number four and six may make someone to say, why are you writing about ranking, yet it was abolished? My response: Even if the main mandarins in the education sector abolished it, the public and media still has a way of ranking schools after release of KCSE. Then, nature tells us that ranking is real. Think of the Big Five.
Best academic practices
Consequently, target setting is one of the best academic practices we share in schools we are chanced to visit at the beginning of the year. Some schools make it a serious seminar. Like what we did with teachers and candidate class of Kaaga Girls School in 2020. Likewise, the candidate class of Meru School in 2021. Science of target setting is unique. Some schools abut it on Form 3 Promotion Exam.
Meanwhile, some schools consider the process of target setting as a practice that should be preceded by an in-depth data analysis to help concerned parties ascertain chinks and gaps in place. This is what will inform academic action plans to be adopted to actualise attainment of set targets.
Finally, targets set by students determine the school target. The release of every exam done in the course of the journey should be followed by a comprehensive analysis of each student’s target. This will help institutions see and seal yawning gaps. It will help in formulation of new academic episodes. More importantly, Form 4 candidates should keep personal score cards they can use to monitor their progress and success after every exam.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer is an education consultant. He visits schools all over the country to deliver academic and career talks. He builds capacity of staff. He trains student councils and peer counsellors. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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