Education Newson January 12, 2024, published an article by Mwalimu Kamomonti Wa Kiambati expressing concern that a whopping 160 students got Es in national schools in last year’s 2024 KCSE, the lowest grade possible in the national examinations.
“It is not a crime to get a grade E in KCSE. In fact, over 25,000 scored grade E in last year’s KCSE results. What is startling is that there are 160 Es in our national schools,” Mwalimu Kamomonti Wa Kiambati complained.
I agree with Mwalimu Kiambati (pictured below) to the extent that, in the best of circumstances, 160 Es in a national school is inconceivable.
However, I don’t agree with the insinuation that students who score Es should be those who attended other categories of secondary schools—extra county, County and sub-county schools.
Granted, national schools admit students who performed extremely well in KCPE. None of the students who join National schools get less than 250 Marks out of a maximum of 500 marks in KCPE. Barring other factors, they have the minimum entry behaviour to effectively understand the secondary education curriculum.
Technical term
Entry behaviour is a technical term in education which refers to the critical knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students bring to a new learning task or subject matter. The new task or subject matter in our case is the secondary curriculum which is comparatively speaking, more demanding mentally than the primary education curriculum.
The slightly over 100 national schools don’t admit all the students who perform well in KCPE. Extra County, County and, subcounty schools, admit students who have scored well over 350 marks. Children who score well over 300 marks, but whose parents and guardians cannot afford boarding fees County and Extra County Schools charge enrol in Subcounty Schools.
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Overall, therefore, the majority of KCPE students who join Form I, have, without a shadow of a doubt, possess the minimum abilities to pursue a secondary education.
We have had cases where students who scored less than 300 marks in KCPE and who joined sub county schools scoring C+ and above, in KCSE. Different Cabinet Secretaries for Education have, upon release of KCSE in the past, recognised students who got less than 300 marks in KCPE and scored A- in KCSE.
Categories
The suggestion, therefore, that Es belong to categories of schools other than national schools, therefore, doesn’t arise. The students who join secondary schools other than national schools are as able and as motivated to learn.
“There is a brilliant child locked inside every student,” an American educator. Collins is best known for creating Westside Preparatory School, a widely acclaimed private elementary school in the impoverished in Illinois, Chicago, Marva Collins notes in her book, Returning Excellence to Education, Marva Collins Way.
However, not all students have similar gradations or similar degrees of brilliance. Embedded in educational policy, standards and curricula, is the proposition that every child, regardless of social background, has potential or, to use Marva’s phrase, brilliance.
The students in other categories of secondary schools have as much potential and as much right to do well in the examinations as those who join National schools.
The teachers who teach in these other schools attend the same colleges. They have substantially similar practical experiences; they also work under a leadership system that is similar to the leadership that students in national schools enjoy.
Whatever differences there are between national schools and other categories of schools are downplayed by the nature and structure of the curriculum, and the way and at the pace at which that curriculum is supposed to be implemented.
The policy, standards and curricula have taken into account the diversity in the abilities of students. They all take care of the differentiations in abilities, learning styles, and capacity to withstand the pressures of learning.
Stakeholders
The Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and other stakeholders provide rules and regulations geared toward creating a supportive learning environment.
Accordingly, the secondary curriculum breaks into school four calendars which roughly go in tandem with the four calendar years. A portion of the curriculum content ought to be taught and properly understood by the students within a school calendar, which is the 39 schools’ weeks before the students embark on the next portion in January, of the following year, when the school calendar, under our education system commences. The same rubric applies for the rest of the three years.
National schools and all other categories of schools admit students with mixed or differentiated abilities. A mixed-ability class or teaching system is one in which pupils of different abilities are taught together in the same class. The classes are ipso facto, mixed because they came with different scores in KCPE.
Carol Ann Tomlinson, the foremost expert in this area, says that mixed ability can also factor in age, background or other social factors.
Strict adherence to policy, standards and curricula at the school level has the potential to produce a satisfying learning experience for all categories of learners. The gifted learners will have the opportunity to take charge of their education by exploring more complex content. The average learners who are the majority will get the opportunity to improve their mastery of the curriculum—going over and over again what they didn’t understand well. Teachers will have the free time to conduct remediation lessons with students who have learning difficulties.
With the teaching and learning experience, all students will be adequately prepared. They will be prepared for three or four things. They will be prepared for a career, higher education and training and for life. It is needless to say the students will have been properly prepared to sit for KCSE, which, in the final analysis, is a means to the four. And not an end.
You will see not less than 30 per cent of students scoring C+ and above of any KCSE candidate. We will have many more students scoring grades, C, and C- that will qualify them to study STEM courses and other courses at the diploma level instead of starting at a Certificate level.
By Kennedy Buhere
Buhere is Communication Specialist
0725327611
buhere2003@gmail.com
