Sheng affecting English, Kiswahili performance

Despite the impressive performance by pupils in KCPE exams, there were concerns over the declining quality of performance in languages.By Peter Orengo and Peter Opiyo

Education Minister Sam Ongeri blamed poor performance in Kiswahili and English to extensive use of Sheng, which he warned is spreading to senior members of society.

In the results, pupils from rural schools performed better in languages than their counterparts in towns, where Sheng is prevalent.

"Our suspicion is that adulteration of Kiswahili and English, where even senior members of the society, including top politicians, have turned to talk Sheng to endear themselves to the youths has affected performance in the two subjects," said Ongeri.

The minister, who was irked by poor ranking of Kenya by Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) in a survey, said the trend is hurting performance.

Best in Africa

Kenya was ranked at position two behind Mauritius out of 15 SACMEQ countries in numeracy but was placed at position five in literacy behind Tanzania, Seychelles, Mauritius and Swaziland.

Ongeri said the low ranking was a matter of concern to the ministry and could be attributed to the use of Sheng among senior members of the society.

Sheng is a register popular amongst the youth, especially the ones living in urban areas.

Such a practice, he said is detrimental to the quality of education and called for leaders and education stakeholders to do something about it.

"While this has short gains in terms of popularity, it seems to translate itself into drop in quality of our children’s performance in both Kiswahili and English," noted Ongeri.

"I therefore urge everyone to take note of this damaging effect and do something about it."

However, Ongeri pointed out that based on the findings, the quality of education is still above average despite the big numbers that are accessing education.