KENYA: Stakeholders "KCPE Not the best way to Gauge Students' intelligence"

Editor's Choice

Most...

Viewed
Commented


1.	KENYA ELECTIONS: Concern as Aspirants Retreat to their Ethnic Roots
2.	KENYA: Luhya Community Rejects Politics of Ethnicity
3.	KENYA: New Constitution Restores Foreign Investors' Confidence
4.	SOUTH AFRICA: Commission concludes settlement with Oceana
5.	Uganda Troops Capture Senior Leader of the Lord Resistance Army


1.	Uganda Troops Capture Senior Leader of the Lord Resistance Army
2.	KENYA: The Mathenge Menace
3.	Sahel: the fate of 160,000 Malian refugees hanging in the balance
4.	UN official stresses urgency of security and justice reforms in the DRC
5.	KENYA: Survey Report Paints a Grim Picture on the Economy

Submitted by IQ4News on Wed, 09/11/2011 - 11:28am

The process of examining candidates and the education system continue receive a lot flak from stakeholders and experts.

By Joab Apollo

The debate on whether to scrap the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations still rages with experts arguing that the introduction of Free Primary Education has aggravated the problem.

Former District Education Officer for Siaya District, John Wasala says that the National Examinations are not the best way to gauge the intelligence of students given the inequalities that exist in Kenya.

“How do you expect a student from a rural school that lacks facilities to compete in the same exams with those from the elite private schools in the country and brand him a failure after exams have been released?” says Wasala, who owns a private school in Kisumu town.

He adds that students in rural areas go through a lot of hardships, with some even catering for their family’s basic needs and castigates the government for not coming up with a solution to reverse the situation.

“Students from poor background go through a lot of suffering while in School. We have those who work, rush to the river in the evening after school and even go to long-distant market centers to buy food. In addition, their schools are ill-equipped as compared to their counterparts in Private Schools,” he said, adding that when he was in High School he only touched a pipette during the Chemistry Exams day.

“I first saw a pipette when I was sitting for exams since our school had no facilities. Now tell me, how wouldI have performed better than a student of say, St Mary’s School in Nairobi that has got everything you need in school including the luxurious swimming pools?”

Ksh. 1000 per student

The Influx of students following the introduction of free primary education continues to be a thorn in the flesh for many schools in the country.

School heads decry that the Ksh.1000 per student the government releases every year is not enough to run the schools in line with the National Expectations.

According to Kipkosgey Maiyo, the Head Teacher of Chemundu Primary School in Nandi, the funds are not enough and they find it hard explaining to parents.

“That money is not enough and when you tell the parents to chip in to provide facilities, they read an ill-motive. To them, the government provides Free Primary Education and anything further than that is extortion,” he said.

He says that he is forced to limit admission of students in his school to 55 per class, but even that is overwhelming due to teacher shortage.According to him, the government’s policy of one teacher per class has not helped matters.

“I have eight teachers. As a head teacher I am included and this presents nightmares since I have to also manage the students, parents and attend education meetings in the country. To me, this is an issue that the government should seriously look into.”

Scrapping of technical subjects

Jude Tallam, a parent in Mosoriot blames the teacher shortage for the saddening trend where schools hire untrained teachers, mostly high school drop outs to teach in primary schools.

This, he says, has compromised the quality of education.

“There is a disgusting trend where schools hire form four leavers as teachers. This people have no knowledge on how to handle students, let alone how to teach them."

The issue of teacher shortage has put the government on collision path with the Kenya Parents Association that castigates it for not considering the plight of school going children.

The Association in September teamed up with teachers in public schools through their two teachers' unions (KNUT and KUPPET) to oppose a decision to hire teachers on contract basis.

Then there is an issue of quality.

Education stakeholders continue to condemn the decision by the government to scrap technical subjects like Agriculture, Art, Craft and Music in primary schools despite their enormous contribution to the country’s job creation efforts.

According to Kipkosgey Maiyo, the decision was tantamount to killing talents and was driven by the desire to promote rote learning in readiness for exams.

“To me, that was unwise. It is like killing talent. Kenya’s economy for example is supported by Agriculture. It makes no sense at all to scrap Agriculture as an examinable subject in our system”.