Low-cost private schools have beaten the odds in national exams and the quality of candidates produced, a report has revealed.
Bridge International school posted a mean score of 345 marks in 2021 KCPE with the top candidate scoring 401 marks.
A study led by Michael Kremer in 2019 and launched on June 7, revealed that the learners at Bridge school receive 53 per cent more learning compared to those in other institutions.
This is probably due to the teacher versus student ratio which has remained at 40 students or less to one teacher.
“For pre-primary pupils, children gain nearly an additional year and half of learning, learning in two years what children in other schools learn in three and a half years,” the report says.
The study disclosed that after studying for two years, primary school learners are ahead of children in other schools.
In terms of the syllabus, they are a year ahead.
The report found that Grade 1 pupils in Bridge International Academies were more than three times as likely to be able to read as their peers in other schools.
Kenya’s national strategic plan showed that over 85 per cent of Grade 3 pupils cannot arrange alphabetical order words in English or Kiswahili.
“Attending a Bridge school for two years increases the probability that a pupil achieves 250 marks or more in the KCPE by more than 40 per cent,” Kremer said.
Kremer said pupils starting from the lowest learning levels gained the most, with girls making the same leap in learning as boys.
The school implements the scientific learning and teaching model adopted by Bridge International Academies Kenya in 2009.
This learning model underpins public transformation programmes supporting more than a million children a day across the continent.
The proprietors' dream was to set up a low-cost private school in the slum to make education more accessible.
That decision is slowly bearing fruits.
Parents pay Sh4,000 school fees per term.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
