CS MATIANGI BECOMES AN EPITOME OF EFFICIENCY

Barely 28 days after releasing Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results Kenya’s cabinet Secretary for education finally released the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results on Thursday.

Dr. Fred Matiangi who took the reigns of education ministry barely a year ago after a cabinet reshuffle released the exams long before the usual times Kenyans are used to.KCPE were released three weeks before Christmas with the usual time being a few days after the celebrations leaving candidates with mixed feeling over the festivities.

The KCSE results which are usually released during the last day of February of the following year after the candidates sat for exams actually came three days before the new year shedding over two months from abated waiting process.

According to Matiangi’s reasoning, the early release of the exam is to prepare parents and candidates for the next step of the academic journey which is a good thing indeed.

Apart from the early announcement of results which has received mixed views from Kenyans the strict supervision during the seating of the exams. Also received similar views with Kenyans and leaders being torn between outright praise or condemnation of the Cabinet Secretary and his team with Kenya National Examination Council chair Prof. George Magoha a former vice chancellor of Nairobi University playing their part.

The release of this year’s KCSE examinations at Shimo La Tewa secondary school in Mombasa was another break for the usual tradition of releasing examination results at the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) headquarters.the second time in 2016 that a national exams results have been released in a different venue after the KCPE results were released at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development center.

The effectiveness of the team saw other development too.In the reduction of candidates with high grades which may seem a bad thing to many but why have a high number of fake good results.

Less than 200 candidates attained a straight A as compared to last year where 2, 685 candidates attained the mark. This year only 141 candidates countrywide managed the feat which has been less than what some schools have been attaining routinely in the years before.

When the CS recently warned that straight As would be hard to come by Kenyans thought he might have been having a bad intention for Kenyan children but he must have known that some of the results we were witnessing were none existing.

 Why could we, for example, have a candidate having a straight A in high school only to struggle completely in the first two semesters of university programme they were admitted to pursue only to change to another programme and continue struggling?

“I am waiting to see where 200 As will come from for some schools this year,” CS Matiangi was quoted and on record recently on the local media a point which shows that slightly supervised sitting and marking of national examinations might have contributed to high number of students performing and some schools being favored because of their lofty names.

Prof. Magoha was also on record cautioning parents and candidates against glorifying high grades and condemning those who attained low grades.Attaining an A did not necessarily mean you can perform more than one with genuine results, however, low it might be. Of course, there are candidates who attain straight As from sheer hard work and determination.

“Parents, teachers and guardians should learn to celebrate any mark attained by their children because it’s what they have achieved through their genuine effort.” Prof. Magoha had said.

The Professor is a distinguished scholar, academician, and a renown disciplinarian. He was appointed to chair KNEC after all its top officials were sacked and the board dissolved following years of examination irregularities that led Kenyans of goodwill becoming concerned over the quality of Kenyan education and the international image of Kenyan education system.

Students who attained the cut mark to join university were 88, 929 this year compared with 169,492 who achieved grade C+ and above last year.Unfortunately, more than half of that number were left out from selection to join government sponsored programmes. This year all candidates with C+ and above are assured of joining university which is sweet music to the hardworking students who would have been left out to struggle for expensive parallel programmes.

The success attained by the new education CS brings back memories of a brief success of current deputy president William Ruto during his brief stint at the ministry of Agriculture at the reign of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga of the Mkate Nusu fame.

The turnaround in the agriculture sector saw Mr. Ruto being praised from the four winds of the republic and for his efforts, he was transferred to the ministry of higher education where he continued with his efficiency. With his popularity so did his travails increased leading to a fall out with the powers that be at the time.That hard work eventually perched him to the second highest office in the country.

Kenyans are now praying that the education CS will be in office a little longer to oversee a complete overhaul of the education sector with the universities being his next stop as he said recently an impending lecturers strike early 2017 notwithstanding.

“I think he should continue with his work to assist the education sector in improving its image and trust once again.” Mr. Francis Tonui the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Bomet branch chairs said on Thursday over the phone after the release of the KCSE examination results.