Education

Brightest two in 2002 KCPE come from same school and are Kisii's

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Published on Saturday, 09 June 2007 01:21

The country's top two pupils in this year's Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination are from the same school - Busara Academy, in Nyandarua. They are were Marita Nyakundi Calvin and Ogendi Moraa Rose, who scored 482 and 481 marks respectively out of 500. Kenya's brightest pair missed only 18 and 19 marks respectively to score the total. "The key to our success is discipline and the fear of the Lord - we believe everyone has something to offer," said an elated Busara headteacher, Mr Peter Karanja. Out of the best 54 candidates nationally, Central Province produced 35, representing 64 per cent. The third best candidate was Nairobi's Chumo Benta Chelagat of Moi Educational Centre, who scored 479 marks. Busara again produced the fourth candidate, Sangoro Wilson George, who had 478. In total, the school had four out of the top 10 candidates and 38 out of the best 100.

This year's were the best results ever. Last year's top candidate, Osiemo Deborah Mocheche, scored 462 at Nairobi's New Light Junior Academy. Releasing the results, Education minister George Saitoti, however, pointed out that the overall mean score in the subjects was still low. Other than Kiswahili objectives (59 per cent), geography, history and civics (55.92) and religion (56.43), the rest had a mean score of less than 50 per cent. The lowest mean score was in English composition (30.64 per cent) and Kiswahili composition (41.73). Others were science (42.74 per cent), mathematics (44.22), English objectives (44.86). What this means is that the majority of the candidates did not score more than 50 per cent in the subjects. "The low mean score in English, mathematics and science is worrying, because these are key subjects for future education as well as our national goals for economic development and industrialisation," the Education minister said. "I urge teachers to re-sharpen their teaching skills and make deliberate efforts to improve candidates' performance in these subjects." Prof Saitoti received the results from the chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council, Prof Raphael Munavu, and the Secretary, Mr Juma Mwachihi. Present at the ceremony at Jogoo House were assistant minister Beth Mugo, Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi and other top ministry officials. An analysis of the results showed that regional and gender disparities in performance continued to dog the education system. Out of the top 824 candidates, only 232 were girls.

The disparities were worse when examined along regional lines. Nyanza Province, a once top-performing province, only had 16 girls among the top 824, while North Eastern Province had 17. It is only in Nairobi where girls' performance matched that of boys, each having 54 among the top. Subject-wise, boys again outshone girls in all subjects except English and Kiswahili compositions. This has a bearing on the trends in higher education. Only those who score highly in mathematics and the sciences have better chances of securing admission to lucrative courses after school and, hence, promising professional careers. In sum, the general trend was that although there is near gender parity in enrolment at Standard Eight – 284,054 girls and 303,907 boys – fewer girls than boys do well in exams. In all these, the upshot is that several strategies that have been put in place in the past decade to redress the gender imbalances are far from realising the desired objectives. Clearly, therefore, the strategies ought to be revised – improvements are required in enrolment and performance as well. Prof Saitoti said as much, adding that the ministry has to step up its campaign to put all boys and girls in school, retain them and ensure that they all do well. Specifically, he said the ministry will provide science packs to schools and intensify in-service training for teachers to sharpen their skills to enable them improve teaching and also address the gender concerns in classrooms. "Without in-service training, teachers cannot understand the emerging dynamics in classroom teaching and that affects their performance," he said. The regional disparities were discernible in the distribution of top berths according to provinces. Having taken 35 out of the top 54, Central Province was miles away from the others. Nairobi, the second in the list, had only eight among the top 54 while Rift Valley had six. Eastern had three while Nyanza and Western each had one candidate among the chart leaders.

While Central's top candidate had 482 marks, Coast's best had 463 and North Eastern 435. Put differently, the best in North Eastern could not even be ranked number 100 in Central Province. The 100th candidate in Central Province had 458 marks and 450 in the Rift Valley. It also emerged that the free primary education programme introduced in January increased enrolment even in Standard Eight. While last year there were 540,069 candidates, this year the number rose to 587,961, an increase of 47,892 candidates. Cumulatively, primary school enrolment at the classes went up by 1.3 million pupils this year. But this was not without a cost. Increased pupil population had adversely affected performance. This was because facilities were overstretched while teachers were overworked, hence were not able to give personalised attention to the candidates, which is the trick for good results. Erstwhile top performing public schools like Nairobi's Olympic Primary did not feature among the top this time round. Not when they had to contend with some 3,000 plus pupils spread across the classes and all depending on a skeleton staff and inadequate facilities. The teachers had practically little time with the candidates the way they used to do in the past and the results could not have been good. It is instructive that some of Nairobi's public schools that produced best candidates are in upmarket areas – Nairobi Primary (Mutuku Nicholas Ndemange, who was second in the province) and Hospital Hill (Jomo John Njuguna (third) – which are in middle class neighbourhoods, which did not have overwhelming enrolment. Although not addressed by the minister, performance of public primary schools is emerging as an issue of concern and requires urgent intervention. Given that Form One intake is based on a quota system, now, more than ever before, fewer candidates from the public schools will make it to the national and top provincial schools because they are not performing as well as those from the privileged private schools. This will accentuate the class divide in the school system, thus going against the national education objective, which is to create national unity.