Bar-lowering in Kenya’s education triggers alarm

 

Experts and stakeholders in education are apprehensive over the alarming pace of changes in policy directions in Kenya warning that hasty directives could water down quality standards.

The latest startling development is the recent announcement by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu that some 2,000 learners who missed out on the final edition of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam last year would be allowed to join Form One without sitting a qualifying test.

The unprecedented move, which came as a dramatic departure from the norm, means that students who had qualified for Form One slots by obtaining passing grades in their KCPE test will be mixing in class with colleagues who have not attained similar marks thus raising equality concerns.

In his address on Monday, CS Machogu said the special batch of learners will be sitting their qualifying tests while in Form Three in preparation for their registration to participate in the Kenya Certificate Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.

Mr Machogu had earlier indicated that the group would undertake a supplementary exam this January to enable them proceed to secondary schools, before turning around this week.

According to Prof Jane Rarieya, the Dean of Education at the Aga Khan University (AKU), the government has sent a bad signal to the sector which could be construed to mean that examinations do not matter.

“Before they could be allowed to join Form One, an assessment exercise would have been in order as this would have helped in their placement. It is also not fair to the other students who toiled to make it through KCPE seeing their peers just have an ‘easy’ transition,” observes Prof Rarieya.

“More importantly, the message we are getting through is that these examinations do not really matter, which begs the question of why we are so fixated with them and why the results are released amidst such grand fanfare.”

Former long-serving Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) secretary-general Wilson Sossion has dismissed the concerns, noting that the move is in line with the government’s 100 percent transition policy.

“Since the government policy is 100 percent transition, the 2,000 students can be transited without necessarily sitting for KCPE. They can be matriculated differently and be fully processed for admission. Access to education should not be obstructed by unnecessary barriers,” Mr Sossion told the Business Daily.

Pundits have also flagged the newly introduced grading structure as one that has the potential to erode qualification standards as it has been found to accord candidates an undue advantage defying the ground rules that previously guaranteed fairness.

In the new system, only two compulsory subjects – Mathematics and one language subject – are required to compute the mean grade, in addition to any other five best-performed subjects.

This is a shift from the retired model where the mean grade was based on seven subjects which included English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, two science subjects – which were all mandatory – and any other two optional subjects.

On Monday, CS Machogu termed the new structure as a reform measure that would help increase the number of students qualifying for admission to universities as well as to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centres.

And true to the projection, the number of students who met the minimum university qualification grade of C+ in the just-released KCSE exam results jumped to an all-time high to cross the 200,000 mark for the first time.

But according to analysts, the country would be living a lie by believing that the numbers are a true reflection of the real quality of students that the test produced, arguing that the new system gives a doctored image.

Proponents have, however, countered the argument saying that the model will aid in determining the discipline a student is predisposed to, as well as ensure that students embarking on a particular programme at the tertiary level will have the requisite foundation.

The question of watering down educational standards has further been fueled by reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria has hinted at plans to suspend recognition of degree certificates and other academic qualifications from Kenya alongside those of three other African nations that include Uganda, Benin and Togo, citing integrity concerns.

The development, which works to inflict further reputational injury to local educational standards in the eye of global employers, came at a time the government has intensified efforts to woo international job markets in an attempt to ease the pressure on the ballooning unemployment.

John Walubengo, an ICT lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, notes that the Kenyan Government will have to implement corrective measures to restore the dignity of locally-issued papers.

“This (tampering with papers) is a habit that impacts the rest of innocent graduates who have gone to school and earned their legit credentials. It will definitely impact the employability of our graduates in international markets,” states Walubengo.

Prof Rarieya however sees the negative publicity only prompting tighter scrutiny of issued qualifications but not an entire blacklist of local graduates by international employers.

BY BUSINESS DAILY