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Students' Dreams Go Up in Smoke

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Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 07:10

Candidates' names were missing from the KCSE register. William Oira was excited. As he strode into the compound of Nyanko Secondary School in Kisii District, he felt a heavy sense of achivement. It was October 21, the first day of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, and the fact that he was going to sit for the exam gave him a great deal of satisfaction.

He was determined to do his best. He wanted to make it to university in appreciation of all the help he had received from well-wishers in seeing him through primary and secondary schools, and taking the exam would be a major step towards achieving his dream. The son of a single mother, Oira, 19, had at one point been forced to drop out of school due to lack of fees. Thereafter, he resorted to taking casual jobs to raise money. His mother, Mary Kemunto, until recently a barmaid, also helped. to sell chang'aa (an illicit spirit) a local brew to raise money. as he struggled with mockery from age mates on the status of his mother Mary Kemunto 43 who is yet to be married.

Having thus raised enough money to see him through his fourth form, , William arrived at his examination centre at 7.30 am, well before starting time. But the news he received there from the headmaster stunned him: he could not sit for the examination because he had not been registered."I grew up in difficult conditions. I was subjected to a lot of suffering at the different homes where I went to stay since my mother is not married. I moved from one home to another in search of a conducive atmosphere to prepare for my exams until a well-wisher took me in, and now this, he sobbed. Oira was not the only one whose dreams were suddenly shattered that day. Thirty-three other students, out of the 93 candidates in the school, discovered that they had not been registered for the exam despite the fact that they had each paid Sh3,200 as registration fees.Equally shocked was Juliet Adams, who had joined Nyanko Secondary School because she wanted to improve on the "C" she had attained from another school last year. Adams wanted to pass well so that she could go to university and study medicine.

"I reported late to school because I first had to convince my uncles that I needed to repeat the examinations. I was asked to pay an extra Sh800 for late registration but I have still missed out," she explained.Adams said although her uncles were willing to pay the registration fee, she was not sure she would be able to raise school fees for another year.

"They are paying fees for three other children in secondary school. How will I convince them to pay fees for me for another year ?" she asked.For Elizabeth Momanyi, who is seven months pregnant, the incident was a double misfortune."My boyfriend and I had agreed to formalise our marriage after my last paper, she mourned. He has been supporting and encouraging me to soldier on and finish my exams before we get married. What am I going to do? Supposing he runs away for fear of marrying a woman without a certificate? Where will I go?" she wondered, as tears of disappointment rolled down her cheeks.Momanyi is now staying with her grandparents for fear of facing her parents. She hopes to persuade her boyfriend to support her so that she can make another attempt next year.Their colleague, Xavier Miranyi, blames the Ministry of Education staff in Kisii for their predicament."I paid my exam fees to the headmaster on March 7 and he gave me a receipt. Many others paid later. How come those who paid later were registered while I was not?" His father, Bernard Mirayi, agrees.

"Why wasn't the anomaly noticed during the district mocks, or even in July, when registered students' names were returned to the schools for verification?Besides the Sh3,200 for registration, all the school's 93 candidates had each paid an extra Sh1,000 to cater for transport and food for inspectors and supervisors, as well as Sh500 for laboratory chemicals. We established Besides, that those whose names were missing had been given different (different from what) index numbers, ruling out any technical hitches in case of late registration. Strangely

The students narrated how they had sat for a mock examination set by the school with only a handful of examination papers."Four of us had to share ones question paper," they claimed. And when the results were released, some had been given marks in subjects they had not done.I got an 'E' in Commerce even though I never sat for such a paper while others got 'As' in maths despite being generally poor in the subject," one student said. The mock results, which were released to them just a week before the KSCE, raised several other queries, but the headmaster blamed the mix-up on computer errors.When they realising that they were not going to do the exam that they had worked so hard to prepare for, the angry students threatened to become violent but were prevailed upon by District Commissioner Abdilahi Leloon, and the local OCPD, Mr Allan Sangoro, not to damage any property.

While apologising to the distraught students, the DC assured them that the government would take stern measures against the school's former headmaster, who had failed to register them.The new headmaster, Mr Pius Morumbwa Omurwa, had taken over the running of the school just three days before the examination. He had no way of verifying how or whether the exam fees were collected, he said."The matter is with the police and I don't have any records to refer to now, he said.. He said he had reached an agreement with the affected students to repeat next year without paying school fees although they would have to pay for the mock exams, the main exams and for invigilators' lunch.

"It is a very unfortunate incident, but there is little we can do until next year, he said.As parents and leaders reacted angrily, the Nyanza Provincial Director of Education (PDE), Mr David Siele, added a new dimension to the saga, pointing an accusing finger at the Catholic Church, the school's sponsors.But the Kisii Diocese's vicar-general, Fr Pancras Juma Mogaka, dismissed the accusation. "How does the church, as a sponsor, become responsible for registering candidates for national examinations?" he asked.He accused the education officials of meddling in the management of Catholic-sponsored schools, adding that the church had written several letters suggesting the appointment of a suitable headmaster, only for their efforts to be blocked by the PDE."We have written many letters proposing the names of competent teachers we felt were better positioned for promotion and posting to Nyanko, he said.The PDE, he said, had imposed a headmaster on Nyanko Secondary School without consulting the church. "But we will raise our objection to that teacher's posting at another forum, he promised.

The Catholic Church has been involved in wrangles with the Ministry of Education over the running of institutions sponsored by the church. While the ministry blames the church for gross interference in the management of schools, the church says its role is to ensure proper management and accountability by the school's managers.

Recently, Bishop Okemwa Mairura of Kisii said that his diocese pays special attention to the running of schools sponsored by the Catholic church. He noted that the standards of education had been falling in these schools, a situation he blamed on incompetent headteachers who were being protected by ministry of education officials.

"In the days when the church had a free hand in running the institutions it sponsors, the results were excellent, he remarked.