What's in a school name?

Precious Girls Riruta in a performance. Many candidates were disappointed not to be selected to such top schools in the country. [photo: file/standard]

There has been so much hype surrounding the admission of Form Ones in the various high schools around the country. Indeed, many are the boys and girls who scored high marks but have been admitted to schools they never even knew existed. They are devastated and you can only imagine how the rest of their education will be if their parents are not ‘connected’ enough to take them to their dream schools.

Sad as it may be, we need to look into a few issues that have landed us in this situation. Why are some high schools in high demand? Every child wants to join the traditional national schools, and every parent wants the same.

Private vs public

Interestingly, few parents have acknowledged the new national schools, those that were upgraded to national status some time back.

Many are the parents who know the academic capability of their children but will still go ahead and ensure their children select the traditional national schools. Unfortunately, when the results come out, the child gets average marks and does not qualify even for a county school but a sub-county school.

It is this yearning for the national schools that has endeared many parents to private primary schools. Their belief is that private schools perform better because they have better facilities than public schools, and are thus a guarantee ticket for their children to the national schools. In a way that is true if we go by the number of public primary schools in Nairobi that have been shut down or converted into high schools for lack of pupils.

Unfortunately, there are not as many private high schools as there are primary schools. It is, therefore, only logical that all the Standard Eight candidates from public and private schools fight for space in the public high schools available.

For those who are lamenting about the schools their children were admitted to, why the hue and cry yet they have been admitted to schools, never mind they never selected them? It is all in the name.

The perception is that if a school has never appeared in the newspaper among the top 100 performing schools, then it is not a good school and that a student will only score an ‘A’ if they attend some of the traditional national schools.

However, having taught in one of the top national schools, this is not always the case. The ‘top schools’ do indeed get students who score ‘Ds’ and even ‘Es’, just like the tiny school in my village also has students who score ‘As’ and ‘Bs’.

Sometimes, I got commendations from people who thought I was posted to the school because I was a top performing teacher; how wrong they were! Nowhere in the Teachers Service Commission’s employment procedure do they consider a teacher’s level of intelligence before they post them. Teachers’ postings are done according to vacancies available.

It is, however, not strange to hear parents saying that teachers in particular schools are not good. I beg to disagree; all graduate teachers go through the same training and once they acquire their degrees or diplomas, they qualify to teach in any high school in the country.

Academically talented

My take is that students should give their all when in school. Education, especially in high school, begs for a lot of the student’s effort; not the teachers’ or the school. Students have scored ‘As’ in schools that do not even have laboratories and have to go to neighbouring schools to do their science practicals. Others scored ‘As’ in schools that are so remote that they do not even have electricity.

Many parents succumb to societal pressure and want their children in the ‘top’ schools for prestige. They are doing it for themselves and not their children. I know of students who scored 300 marks in KCPE, but because their parents had ‘connections’, they were admitted to national high schools. Unfortunately, they were unable to cope and eventually scored dismally in KCSE or were transferred to other schools along the way.

Students should not be pressurised for grades. Not all are academically talented. Do not force a talented musician to become an aeronautic engineer. It is not the school name that brings the ‘A’; it is the student’s efforts with the support of the teachers and the parents.