The increasing number of learners scoring ‘E’ grades in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Examination (KCSE), has continued to worry education stakeholders in Nakuru County.
Terming it as an unnecessary burden, stakeholders are calling for concerted efforts to lessen the “heavy tail”, that has dragged the standards of education in the County.
“The tail is heavier than that of a crocodile. It is a source of worry to learn that for four good years, a school can only emerge with a mean of 1.3, which means almost all learners scored an E,” County Director for Education Fred Osewe regretted.
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“You don’t have to go to school to get an ‘E’, all you need to do is sit at home and come back for the exams then you have your ‘E’,” Osewe added.
The government since the inception of free secondary school education in 2017, has been releasing Ksh22,244 as capitation for every learner in the programme, each year, with a huge percentage of the National Government Constituency Development Funds, going towards offsetting fee balances in schools.
"We can't have our classes crowded for four years in the name of 100 per cent transition. Why should we spend taxpayers’ money educating young people who don't want to learn? Let us have those who are willing to learn to enrol and encourage the rest to seek skills from technical colleges," a teacher who sought anonymity noted.
The Tutor argued that most of those learners kept away from schools, only to turn up during examinations to enable the transition and eventually sit for the final national exam.
The local National Library Services has partnered with residents to offload this burden, particularly in Mathematics, which has been dreaded by many learners.
"Most students believe that mathematics is difficult and we have partnered with the Young Altitude Mathematician Association, who come on board to offer remedial classes to all students from nearby schools free of charge," librarian Purity Mutuku noted.
Mutuku noted that the class, between 9 am and noon every Saturday, had gone a long way in helping learners improve their scores, in addition to the book clubs that have been initiated in schools, to encourage learners to read to understand, as opposed to reading for exams.
The recently released KCSE results saw the County bag 40 straight A’s, with 33 from Kabarak High school.
“Our best public school was Nakuru Girls which garnered a mean of 8.1 followed by Nakuru Boys and Utumishi Academy at 8.1 and 7.9 respectively. Kabarak,10.1, outshined its peers St. Clare Molo and Anesta Boys, Lanet, who score a mean of 9.1 and 8.9 respectively,” added Osewe.
