Thousands of students leave their homes early in the morning every day, ready to learn. They work hard for four years to attain the threshold of C+ and above.
When they fail to, their dreams of joining university to study professional courses, hoping to get good jobs, are dashed. Instead, they end up doing casual jobs in their villages.
Parents also become frustrated, since they know well that their sons and daughters cannot fit into institutions of higher learning.
This was the scenario in most schools last year, when
600,000 students sat the
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination. Those getting C+ and above were reported to be about 70,000.
The situation was particularly dire in Lari subcounty, Kiambu county, where mass failure has been a decade-long problem.
"Schools in this area do not perform well," said Martha Wangu, a parent from Gitithia Mixed Secondary School.
"We are all scared since we don’t know if this is the situation in the whole country."
Now schools are on edge as this year's KCSE exam begins on Friday, hoping measures they have taken to reform classes and support teachers and students will improve performance.
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SERIAL FAILURE
The Education ministry reported that only one student in Lari scored as high as A- in last year’s KCSE exam out of 3,269 candidates. Qualifying grades of A- to C+ were 184, which is 5.61 per cent of all grades, while the grades of D- to E were 1,661, which was 50.61 per cent of all grades. This even as the subcounty’s mean score rose from 249.92 in 2016 up to 254.65 last year.
The mass failure drew concern from parents and church leaders, while residents threatened to hold demonstrations to protest the serial failure.
Educationist Wilson Gachagwi said it is wrong to allow students to keep getting failure grades. He said residents are hungry for solutions.
“The subcounties’ mean score was an indicator that students don't perform well at all. We spoke with residents who wanted to protest against it, and we convinced them that that was not the way,” the educationist said.
Gachagwi, who is also the Bathi Secondary School board of management chairman, said they started seeking audience with the Education ministry to discuss the issue.
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“The problem did not start last year. This has been the case for about 10 years. We hoped things would get better, but we said we won’t allow our sons and daughters to continue scoring Ds and other failure grades,” he said.
“We must rise up. We passed in these schools and must ensure our students get better grades like we did. The future will judge us harshly if we don't rectify.”
WHY THEY FAIL
Kinale resident Simon Mwaniki blamed parents for the underperformance, saying they distract their children with agriculture.
He said the area has good fertile soil and an environment that is conducive to vegetables, such as kales, cabbages and spinach, as well as carrots and fruits.
“Parents here don’t want to lose a chance. There are those who have subdivided land for their sons and daughters. Do you think they can concentrate once they start earning [from farming]?” Mwaniki asked.
“If parents and students are not properly engaged in the strategic plan, they might continue doing farming, while we sit back and expect good results.”
Another parent, Nancy Waithera, proposed that some secondary schools be upgraded to national schools, saying all subcounties in Kiambu county should have a national school.
“Despite having problems from home and the society, 90 per cent of our schools are day schools, extra county schools and very few county schools. We don't have a national school around, which pulls down our mean score as a subcounty,” she said.
Waithera said the problems facing students include drug abuse, especially bhang and cigarettes; absenteeism, negative attitude towards education by some parents, inadequate parental advice, lack of role models to support education and domestic problems.
“Parents have problems. They could be family disputes or financial problems. They need to advise their children that they are in control of what they are going through,” she said.
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CLOSE FAILING SCHOOLS?
Early this year, leaders assembled in a bid to come up with a solution. They included area director of education Omari Borura, MP Jonah Mburu and deputy county commissioner Aaron Koros.
The trio met school heads, BOM chairpersons, religious leaders, professional groups and opinion leaders at an open forum to discuss the way forward.
Chief guest Prof Dominic Mwenja, who is the CEO of Mater Hospital, asked why schools performing poorly are still in existence. However, he said they can improve with the right strategies.
Mwenja encouraged parents, BOMs, students and the community to support teachers to implement their mandate, saying it would take concerted efforts.
“Our teachers have been trained like those teaching in national, extra county or county schools. Let us all close the gap we feel we have and support our teachers and students,” he said.
MP Mburu proposed that schools where the best-performing students attain Ds be closed and others be merged to ease follow-up. He cited Karigu-ini Secondary School in Nyanduma ward, whose eight best KCSE students scored D plain, saying it was a total shame.
The MP said he was considering having the school closed and students transferred to the neighbouring Gachema and Gachoire secondary schools.
He said the trend had persisted for a long time. Mburu said students in the three schools come from the same villages, yet their performances were different.
The legislator said Karigu-ini was one of those performing poorly, saying they will ensure government and parents’ finances are not misused or students’ time wasted.
Mburu said complaints had been heard for several years, with residents questioning what happens in the education sector.
“Some asked openly in public barazas, others in social media and even in schools and churches,” Mburu said.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Education director Borura said he had formed a team that has been sitting down to analyse the issues discussed as well as measures raised and proposed.
For three months, the team worked under his supervision as chairman, with commissioner Koros co-opted as a member and the area MP as its patron.
It came up with a 2019-23 strategic plan that will guide teachers, boards of management, stakeholders, parents and students towards achieving better grades. The plan was launched on September 28.
Among the measures, Borura said, there will be strict supervision of teaching and learning activities at the classrooms daily, holding individual teachers accountable for all classes, and training teachers in annual empowerment workshops.
Other activities include termly cluster or inter-cluster competitions for co-curriculum activities, and annual workshops for parents, principals and head teachers.
The director said all schools will hold prize-giving days, which will be attended by parents, and later annual subcounty prize-giving days, where stakeholders will be motivated by invited guests, who will be chief guests.
Borura, who was posted in the subcounty early this year, also said they will ensure all schools are staffed with teachers who are registered with the TSC.
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“We shall ensure there are good results in future. All we need is cooperation from all stakeholders and commitment,” Borura said.
Borura warned that they will follow up with schools and at village level to ensure the strategic plan is being implemented, since results must be seen and felt.
Lari Resource Trust chairman Paul Ngunyi, who was part of the strategic team, termed “saddening” the results students get after every exam, considering the constituency used to perform well and had produced professionals in different fields.
He said classrooms in both secondary and primary schools are in better condition, but some need refurbishment.
“We are happy we have classrooms. We don't have a situation where any of our students are learning under a tree. Ours now is to implement the strategic plan and I’m sure we shall start seeing fruits of students performing well,” Ngunyi said.