Time to make day and sub county schools centers of excellence

The jury is out for the candidates of the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. By the Kenya National Examinations Council summary, the bulk of top performers hail from the national schools. Some 81.2  per cent of all who scored grade A came from national schools.

On the other extreme, 83.52 per cent of candidates with D and E grades came from sub county schools. In total, more than 40 per cent of all candidates scored grade D and below. While the focus is on the top performers, the media all but forgets the bulk of candidates who score the lower grades.

This year, nearly half the candidates scored D+ and below. For an exam moderated for the average student, the expectation should be that the majority will score about average. Also, no category of school should fail to meet the average expectation. Considering that the government goes out of its way to fund secondary education to the tune of billions of shillings, the returns seem to be abysmal.

Of particular concern should be the 3.4 million learners attending the Free Day Secondary Schools. As more and more learners transit to secondary school, day schools are the backbone of the education system. However, attending a day school should not amount to a life sentence. While there are pathways to rise from the ashes of Grade E to excellence in both academics or other endeavours, for most candidates, poor performance in secondary school is virtually a life sentence.

Therefore the spotlight should shift from the top performers to the general performance of day secondary schools and other sub county schools. The fact that these schools usually pick the bottom of the class from the primary schools is not reason enough for us to accept poor results at Form Four. For the most part, poor performance at Form Four implies inherent weakness in basic numeracy and literacy skills.

While some subjects require some level of technical knowledge, these too require rather basic laboratories and instruction to learn. Given that virtually every village or ward now hosts a secondary school, it should not be difficult to equip at least one school in every ward to offer standard facilities and instruction in all subjects.

Far from being a condemnation of individual candidates in sub county schools, the poor performance in the village schools indicate a poorly managed section of the education system. Just as we now have high standards in local maternity care that seeks to eliminate maternal deaths, we should be able assure that any person of sound mind and reasonable discipline scores about average in national tests.

The results should then form a basis for inquiry into the factors leading to poor performance in day and sub county schools. While the norm has been that this only happens after a hue and cry, the Ministry of Education should activate its inspectorate to determine what needs to be done to improve education outcomes for the millions of learners in local schools.

It should worry the Cabinet Secretary for Education that children who scored about average at primary school graduate into below average students in the local secondary school. This poor performance discourages parents from enrolling their children in local secondary schools leading to overcrowding in boarding schools and corruption as they seek places for their children.

In previous years, some rural schools and day schools have shone only to flatter. Schools like Allidina Visram in Mombasa or Kit Mikayi in Seme have risen to the occasion several times. In the universities and colleges, many students from nondescript secondary schools end up top of the class. There is potential in the district and day schools going to waste because of poor standards.

It is time the high standards kept in national and provincial schools are maintained in other schools. For one, children attending private day schools have a higher chance of success than colleagues in public day schools. It is evident the quality assurance section of the Ministry of Education has not put public day schools and sub county schools on their toes.

As we transition into the Competency Based Curriculum era which essentially transfers part of secondary school to the local primary school, much effort should go into ensuring quality at every stage. As things stand, secondary school is just a place where nearly half the learners only go to grow up but come out with little to boast about. The return on investment by both parents and government is too low.

We should not wait until parents invade schools to chase away head teachers for the ministry to act. While parents have certain expectations for their children, it appears the Ministry of Education has no set goals for schools. That probably explains it has hidden behind top performers while doing nothing about the generally poor standards across the board.

As the country shifts gear towards high expectations in every sector, the Ministry of Education must account for every shilling spent in schools in terms numbers of students and average outcome of learning. We go to school to learn, not to grow old.