File | NATION Mwingi South MP David Musila at a past meeting. He was among leaders who attended a two-day conference to discuss the poor performance in last year’s KCPE examinations in Kitui County.
By NATION Team newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, December 31 2011 at 22:00
Posted Saturday, December 31 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Officials and educationists cite teacher laxity as main cause of poor results in the 2011 KCPE examination
Leaders and education officials from the seven counties that posted the lowest scores in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination are trying to figure out how to stop the decline and improve results.
The counties are Tana River, where the mean score in the exam was 213, the lowest in the country, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Lamu, Kilifi, Kisii and Kitui, where the mean score was 232, the highest of the seven.
In Kitui, ranked 41 of 47 counties, MPs David Musila (Mwingi South) and Charles Nyamai (Kitui West) attended a two-day conference to determine the cause of the poor performances.
They told parents that all efforts, including enhanced discipline in schools and scaling up investment in education infrastructure, would be employed to reverse the trend.
“We should not point fingers over who is to blame for the failure because this problem needs collective efforts of all county leaders,” Mr Musila said.
There are reports of disagreements in the county over the role of education officials and teachers in the debacle with attention focused on the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
In the last year and a half, more than 40 head teachers were interdicted or demoted in Kitui Central and Mutito constituencies for alleged professional misconduct involving absenteeism and misuse of school funds.
Kitui County Council Chairman John Manguye said that unless the government takes drastic measures to deal with delinquency of some teachers, Kitui will remain in educational doldrums.
“Many teachers are working in their villages, but they have withdrawn their own children and enrolled them in private boarding schools and were thus not bothered by poor results as theirs were not affected,” he said.
Embarrassing outcome
Katulani district education officer Gabriel Lesiamito said poor performance by some teachers was to blame for the embarrassing outcome that resulted in a serious altercation between teachers and parents in many schools.
But Knut officials Joel Mutambu and Job Ngusu defended the union against claims of being confrontational, saying teachers are being unfairly blamed for the situation and everyone involved has to deal with the problem.
What has shocked many residents is the fact that all the arid counties in North Eastern region, including Mandera, Marsabit, Garrisa, Isiolo, Wajir and Turkana, ranked higher than Kitui, while Makueni county, its neighbour to the southwest, managed an impressive third position nationally.
A case in point is Kathukini primary school situated barely five kilometres from the Katulani district education office.
Although it has enough teachers and access to electricity and piped water, unheard of in many rural schools, it was ranked third from the bottom countrywide with a mean score of 128 marks.
On average, each of the 23 pupils who sat this year’s KCPE managed only a paltry 25.6 marks in each of the five subjects tested. Parents blame education officials for failing to crack down on teacher laxity.
“Our children are being wasted year in year out, and the ministry has failed to act on laxity among teachers who are squarely responsible for this mess,” said Mr Muli Kilonzo, a parent.
As a result of the poor KCPE results, South Eastern University College (SEUCO) has begun an investigation into the cause of the serious disparities in exam performances in Ukambani region.
According to principal Prof Muluvi, School of Education professors will conduct the research, and the findings will be shared with leaders and stakeholders at the consultative forum.
“The county needs to overhaul the way public schools are managed by electing credible boards of governors and school committees who understand the challenges” Prof Muluvi said.
St Peters Preparatory (Nyamira) topped the list of performers at the bottom followed by Abema Uphill Academy, Riamogunde Academy, Gatare Junior Academy and Itierio Mission Academy, all in Kisii County.Private primary schools in Kisii and Nyamira counties were the worst performers nationally. Nyamira’s Nyakemincha DEB primary school, whose name means “the tail”, was the worst-performing public school in the 2011 KCPE exam.
Pupils in Coast province performed poorly with Kilifi, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kwale and Tana River counties taking up the last five positions.
Reported by Kitavi Mutua, Galgallo Bocha, Daniel Nyassy, Rabecca Okwany, Jonathan Manyindo and Nyambega Gisesa
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