Should a genuinely obtained higher degree nullify ‘failure’ at lower levels of schooling?

Recently, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho proudly told the nation that he was proud of his D-. His own senator is currently using the same politically. Exit the Coast and enter the capital city and you meet Senator Mike Sonko who fondly feels his single E is better than a string of Es of his political rival. I am assuming that the situations and grades in question were genuinely obtained. If that is so then are we over dramatising or are we politicising the issue of grades?

In 1970, I joined the prestigious Friends School Kamusinga popularly known as FSK after my second sitting of the then Certificate or was it Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (CPE/KCPE).

A second sitting because my focus had always been to join FSK but at my first sitting, I did not obtain the marks to earn a place at my coveted school. I declined to report to a school that had admitted me with the lower grades.

My colleagues who got lower grades and could therefore not join any government  joined the then ‘harambee’ schools. Come 1974, for my Advanced Level at FSK, some of those who had been deemed failures and who had joined harambee schools joined me in Form Five.

Some of my Form Four colleagues at FSK did exceedingly well and joined some of the other prestigious high schools such as Alliance to do unusual combinations of four principal subjects.

In 1975, a very good number of my FSK colleagues who had failed CPE, but joined harambee schools excelled in their Kenya Advanced Certificate of Secondary School Examinations (KACSE) and joined universities both locally and abroad to later graduate with as good grades as  First Class Honours degrees.

Surprisingly, a number of the excellent four principal students from excellent schools such as Alliance who joined universities did not get First Class Honours degrees. They just passed.

A few were among those discontinued.  What this means is that: One, failure at lower levels does not necessarily mean one will fail at higher levels; two, success at lower levels does not guarantee success at higher levels. This is because there are a host of factors at play but let that be a story for another day.

Indeed, had the universities decided not to admit those who did not pass at primary level and went through harambee schools then the country would have lost some of the most brilliant brains.

In 1970, Form Six leavers could join university with a single principal E. In 1971, due to competition, universities started demanding for a minimum of two principals. In 1975, points were introduced.

From then on, the cut-off entry to university has been pegged not on performance, but on availability of space. The introduction of parallel degree programmes came in as a saviour for university material that had been left out of the train due to infrastructural shortages and not intellectual deficiencies.

When I was teaching at Kenyatta University (KU) way back in 1989 a case came up for promotion of a lecturer and we had to scrutinise his academic history.

It was discovered that although the he had valid masters and PhD degrees from the University of Nairobi, the master’s degree was supposed to be terminal meaning he should not have gone on to do a PhD. But on scrutinising his PhD course work, it was found that he in fact, was among the best performers. He was eventually promoted.

The message seems to be that it does not mean that anybody who fails at a lower examination should be deemed to have failed in life. The otherwise deemed failures at CPE who went on to join ‘harambee schools’ and managed to score good marks enabling them to join universities, proves this point.

unfair condemnation?

Many of them have made it to the corporate world leading some of the best performing companies. I also know many people who began with certificate courses and ended up pursuing degrees.

And lest we forget; is the new education system that will replace the 8-4-4 not set to phase out the national examinations currently done at the end of primary and secondary education? Did we not find deficiencies in past and current examinations and by extension, the grading system?

Should we therefore still consider them in judging those who went through the system we have rejected?

Unlike the rejected system that is heavily focused on examinations, the new one will be competency-based and will put more emphasis on identifying talents and nurturing them. It will emphasise continuous assessment tests rather than end-of-cycle tests and the focus is to equip learners with skills rather than having them cram and reproduce facts.

We know talent to be a natural aptitude or skill. We are therefore recognising that there are people with certain talents not necessarily measured by a school examination grade. One such a talent is known to be leadership (although it is now recognised that whereas some leaders are born others, are made).

Might it be double speak to castigate those who obtained low grades in a system of education that we have found fault with?

There has been talk of not recognising foreign degrees of Kenyans who obtained low grades at local examinations and are therefore considered local failures. Might we rethink that notion?

Take this scenario: a Kenyan obtains the so-called low grades locally and joins an Indian university for medicine. On return he is discriminated against yet when the doctors go on strike we request India to send us the doctors who graduated together with the said “discriminated “against doctor.

In my opinion, if someone earned a genuine degree having followed a genuine programme and genuinely satisfied examiners of that degree then what that fellow obtained at a lower grade say at Form Four level should not come into play. In relation to the educational learning domains of Benjamin Bloom I would say that it will be difficult for a candidate who knows only lower level items such as knowledge and comprehension to pass higher level testing items say synthesis or evaluation.

However, passing high level testing items is to me in itself proof that the candidate knows lower level testing items since they form the building blocks for answering the higher level test items.

Mr Bwisa is professor of entrepreneurship at JKUAT- bwihem@gmail.com