Just where do KCPE academic stars go after their big celebrations?

By LILLIAN ALUANGA-DELVAUX

Kenya: Comparisons between this year’s top 100 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates and their performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) four years later shows mixed fortunes for majority of students that excelled in the national primary school exams.

Although not scientific, a study of this year’s KCSE results shows a good number of students ranked top 100 in KCPE in 2009 were knocked off the charts in the national secondary school exams. While this is not a scientific survey the fact that many of the ‘academic stars’ in KCPE disappear from the list of top performers, four years later, is raising questions.

With 22 students ranked among the top 100, Alliance Boys High School, took the lion’s share of this year’s top national positions. Majority of those listed, however, were not among the top 100 in the 2009 KCPE exam.

The top student in the 2009 KCPE exam, Njoroge Peter Kamenju, remained in the league of top performers, at position 54 in KCSE.

Kamenju was a student at Alliance Boys High School.

Others that retained positions in the top 100 were Kenya High School’s Sharon Mwangi and Alliance High School’s Kingsley Obwocha, ranked position 50 and 78 respectively.

No correlation

Kamenju scored 438 marks in KCPE four years ago and was ranked number one in a listing that saw candidates that scored between 438 and 425 make it to the top 100 nationally.

But a look at the 2009 KCPE top 100 list points to a different story for many of the top students, four years later.

For instance, only three students out of 65 sampled for this article, listed among top 100 in the 2013 KCSE results were among the top when they sat their KCPE in 2009.

Results of the 65 students used for this article were from Alliance Boys High School, Maseno School, Kisii High School, Chavakali High School, Moi High School Kabarak, Nairobi School and Kenya High.  These are schools that had majority of candidates listed among the top 100 in last year’s KCSE.

While a good number of the students that made it to the top tier in KCSE scored over 400 marks when they sat KCPE in 2009, others that had lower marks also excelled in Form Four.

For example, out of seven students from Chavakali High School listed among the nation’s top 100 in KCSE, only one had scored over 400 marks in the 2009 KCPE. The same applies to Kisii High School. None of those from Maseno and Nairobi School that topped KCSE this year were listed among the top 100 nationally, when they sat their KCPE in 2009. (See attached tables).

So just what happens to these academic stars once they cross over to high school?

A former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Prof James Kiyiapi says the discrepancy shows there is no correlation between performance of pupils in KCPE and KCSE.

“It is a fact that some candidates that do well in KCPE don’t carry it through to KCSE. But we cannot also argue that top performers in KCPE should be the top in KCSE. My view, however, is that there is a lot of drilling of candidates to prepare them for KCPE,” he says.

Chavakali High School Principal Kahi Indimuli shares the same view.

He says many students are unable to adjust to the system in secondary school’ as a result of drilling in primary schools largely geared towards scoring high marks in KCPE to get into good secondary schools.

 Environmental factors

His counterpart, Kisii High School Principal Casper Maina, also weighs in on the debate and says the relationship between a student’s performance in primary and at secondary level depends on several factors and has a lot to do with how students are handled and their environment.

“In my view, any student that scores above 360 marks in KCPE stands a good chance at being at the top in KCSE,” he says.

A head teacher of a private secondary school says top KCPE performers don’t necessarily stay at the top in KCSE, but adds that there are other factors, besides drilling that could cause this.

‘I have a students that scored 198 marks in KCPE but got grade C in KCSE. Another one that had 312 in KCPE got a B+ and one with 314 in KCPE got an A-.

But then there is one that had over 400 marks in KCPE but performed poorly in KCSE,” he says.

Other reasons advanced by a team of consultants at the Education Enhancement Centre in Nairobi point to ‘distractions’  in adolescence, transitions in families and differences in mentorship models used for students at primary and secondary level.

Kiyiapi says the fact that many parents ‘are chasing grades’, is partly attributed to a rigid education system that forces them to seek the best opportunities for their children.

“We have many children from private schools doing well in KCPE. But we are also seeing students from schools with less endowed facilities who when exposed to such an environment in high schools, do equally well,” says Kiyiapi.

University of Nairobi lecturer Andrew Riechi attributes the ‘disappearance’ of KCPE stars to what he argues is a grading (at KCPE level) that is not necessarily determined by the level of one’s knowledge. “The grades are simply for placement to secondary school and so many students cram just to pass KCPE. Once they get to secondary school they are unable to cope,” he says.

Riechi, a lecturer in the department of Educational Administration and Planning, reiterates the need to de- emphasise examinations and grades.

Natural talent

The lecturer maintains that not everything must be measured in terms of grades and marks but more focus should be on the outcome of the learning process.

“We must change our education structure from the current single track, which is academic, to include other areas that incorporate talent or vocational training,” he says.

A former Assistant Minister of Higher Education Dr Kilemi Mwiria says good performance of pupils from public primary schools admitted to national schools and the subsequent good results they register reinforces the argument by those in favour of the quota system Form One selection recently elicited an outcry from private schools who argued they were being discriminated because the larger share of slots in national schools were given to pupils from public primary schools.

A look at the primary schools where top candidates in the 2013 KCSE exam were picked from however shows a mixed representation of both public and primary schools.

For instance out of the 11 candidates from Maseno school that made it to the top 100 in KCSE, at least four were from public schools and five from private institutions. Majority of those from Kisii High school listed among the top performers, however were from public primary schools.

National schools, says Mwiria, equalise the field for students from both private and public primary schools thus provide a chance for one’s natural talent to show because there is little room for ‘spoon feeding’ candidates.