Najma's ‘B’ grade in KCSE exam is evidence of a flawed system
The Kenyan examination system has wasted many promising young people, shattering their career aspirations and thus destroying their future. The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) have served as different ‘jail terms’ for many Kenyan children.
A child with a mark or grade below the “cut off” cannot proceed to the next level. Some have to sit the national examination at the same level for several years. Others have been forced by circumstances to go to other countries, especially Uganda, where they end up being successful students and eventually joining great careers.
The system has led to the devastation of individuals, sentencing them to undeserved miserable lives. Education wastage over the years has been disastrous thanks to poor measure of academic achievement. Not every parent and/or caregiver has information on alternative ways to ‘salvage’ the child who has performed ‘poorly’.
Of significance was a message in an article in the Sunday Nation of April 24, 2022 on page 4 titled ‘Students with low KCPE marks get top grades.’ According Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha, one Najma Mohamed Hassan was the most improved student.
She had scored 113 marks out of the possible 500 in KCPE. This means she had not qualified to be selected for admission in any secondary school. Most likely her parents sought a vacancy at Banisa Mixed Secondary School in Mandera expecting to be turned away. However, she had, despite all odds, transformed 113 marks to a ‘B’ grade in KCSE.
There are many young boys and girls who score lower marks than Najma in KCPE. Such are declared by the examination system as failures. In fact, any child scoring less than 250 marks is considered as a non-achiever. Think of the case of Mutharakwa Primary School in Bomet County which had their top pupil scoring only 137 marks and the lowest 46 in the latest KCPE results. Over the years, such cases have been considered as education wastage. The girls are married off as the boys get initiated to menial tasks while still young.
Many children who score low marks in KCPE are taken to day schools to ‘grow up’, the assumption being that when they complete four years of secondary school education, they will have strong muscles and energy to do non-skilled jobs or get married to bear children and fill the earth.
Apart from Najma, others who were recognised for beating the odds to prove society wrong were Adhiambo with 165 marks at KCPE and turning it into a B- in KCSE, Cheptoo with 267 to score an A-, Mwangi with 211 and getting a B, Mavii 221 (B), Shawiza 242 (B) and Wambua 241 to register a B.
A contrast ought to have been made with those who scored sterling KCPE marks, joined coveted national or extra county schools and ended up getting grades as low as D and E. That would have sent a strong message to all and sundry that it is not the school that performs well but the individual child. It would also serve to challenge the validity of examination results as a measure of a learner’s ability.
An examination system that is corruptible through cheating, buying of examinations, spoon feeding of learners is not worth much.
It is only hoped that the new Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) will reverse the losses incurred by its preceding systems. However, continuous assessments carried out by teachers should be monitored to ensure credibility.
Being human, teachers may award high passes to learners they are handling. Such a scenario may end up compromising the objectives of the CBC assessment bearing in mind that internal assessment will account for 60 per cent while the summative exam by KNEC will account for only 40 per cent. BY DAILY NATION
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