TOM OTIENO | NATION Teachers and parents at Ma Junior Academy in Kisumu County celebrate with Ryan James Maleshe and Njoga Diana Achieng who scored 421 marks each in the KCPE exam. The school scored a mean grade of 353.7 in the results released on December 28, 2011.
By BENJAMIN MUINDI bmuindi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Thursday, December 29 2011 at 22:00
Posted Thursday, December 29 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Most counties with poor KCPE results had highest number of older candidates
Over-age pupils and repeaters performed poorly in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education
An analysis of the just-released results showed that 19 and 20-year-old candidates scored an average of 203 and 195 marks respectively.
On the other hand, candidates aged 13 and 14 years, regarded as the right age for class eight pupils, scored an average of 278 and 265 marks.
“There is ample research evidence indicating that performance is affected negatively by old age,” Education minister Sam Ongeri said.
The analysis further showed that most of the counties that performed poorly in the national exam had the highest number of over-age candidates.
Kilifi and Kwale counties led the pack with 2,766 and 1,453 over-age candidates respectively.
Others were Tana River and Taita Taveta.
“Making children repeat classes and also taking them to school when they are over-age does not therefore add value,” Prof Ongeri said.
The effect of repetition and over-age on pupils was also corroborated by a regional assessment conducted by 15 governments on Standard Six pupils.
The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (Sacmeq) report said both repetition and over-age had a negative effect on learning.
“Forcing children to repeat increases their age at the end of the cycle making their performance dip as the grow older,” the assessment noted.
Following this findings, Prof Ongeri has directed that pupils should not be subjected to repetition of classes.
He charged his PS James ole Kiyiapi to ensure all schools adhered to the directive.
“Repetition has a negative effect on learning progression and I urge all head teachers to stop this practice because it is detrimental.”
“Kenyan children have a right to education and should be allowed to go through the education cycle without any hindrance.”
Sacmeq had also ranked Kenyan pupils among the top in literacy and numeracy in the 15 countries that participated in the study.
“This is evidence of efficient curriculum implementation and that the quality of our education is above average despite the huge enrolment,” Prof Ongeri said.
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