Are school fires linked to leaked exams?

I think the Ministry of Education has stumbled upon the root cause of school strikes and fires without the help of a task committee.

Many of us involved in schools have always wondered why these strikes become rampant in second term, and why joint tests (mocks) and ranking are the main features.

In joint formative tests, comparative performance analysis between participants is key. They bring out strengths and weakness in the curriculum delivery.

Schools seeking the relative intervention methods that will improve performance take them either as cluster of schools within a similar category.

These tests were largely used by both public and private schools to offer upcoming schools an opportunity to gauge themselves against known good performers before the national tests.

From the results, teachers converse among themselves on why they did worse or better than a school or schools they thought they would beat.

When such tests are conducted regularly, the better performing institutions are identified quite early and the national tests outcomes become a mirror reflection of a picture already known to the joint evaluation tests entity.

With cheating in the national tests being real, the fear of being smoked out from previous performances sparks the mayhem and steps are taken.

Schools start leaking and teaching the joint tests to corroborate performance with the already acquired national tests materials. Some schools even refuse to participate over flimsy reasons for their mediocre performances to remain anonymous.

Others keep away since the tests are leaked and, therefore, do not reflect the true picture of a student's ability while some students protest for doing a test that is already in the hands of colleagues from other schools.

And there lies the beginning of a circus of misinformation about workloads, joint tests, ranking and education calendar.

Now that the Education CS and Knec have set themselves to bell the cat, can we have the ranking back to smoke out the cheats?