Every time KCSE and KCPE results are released, two distinct categories of learners emerge. On one hand are those the society regards are bright who then are honoured in many ways including being carried shoulder-high, getting their photographs splashed on front pages of daily newspapers and being interviewed on television.
Then there is another category of learners viewed as failures. This group has no option but to accept their destiny and reality of their performance. The fact their dismal performance is attributed by the society to laxity in academic work does not make matters any better.
According to the KCSE results of 2019, some 421,057 which is 61.9 per cent of candidates scored D+ and below. Those who scored C plain and C minus were 146,460 Candidates or 21.5 per cent. A paltry 16.5% of the candidates qualified to join the university.
The KCSE results are built on the inequality brewed and bred at the primary level of schooling through KCPE results. Majority of those who qualified to join universities are products of elite national schools that interestingly had their primary education in private schools.
These results paint a picture of how we continue to kill a whole generation with shame. The biggest tragedy is that this kind of blatant inequality and injustice to learners who come from humble backgrounds is dramatised and given national highlight without considering the state of their schools.
It is very unfortunate that we are condemning minors as young as 12 as failures based on an exam done in a week or two. This shameful tag of failure has to be carried by the learners to subsequent stages of life irrespective of the fact that by the time they sat the exams, they were emotionally, physically and intellectually immature and unprepared to decide how they wanted their futures to look like.
Attempts to end poverty facing the bigger share of the population will level this playing field and give all youth a chance to become the best they can be. This is for the government to equip all public schools with requisite equipment and infrastructure to give the learners access to opportunities beyond the textbook.
To provide equality of opportunity to compete in the race, all participants should begin at the same starting line.
Kakamega
