What Next for the Education Sector?
The Education sector in Kenya seems to be undergoing great transformations since Dr. Fred Matiang’i took office as the new Cabinet Secretary of Education. This is proof from the kind of changes which have been experienced this year.
It started off with the Kenya National Examination Council’s (KNEC) Board being disbanded where nine of the members were sacked due to examination irregularity accusations. As if this was not enough, he went further and adjusted the National Examination dates in May from the ones that had previously been set, a move that was driven by changes in the calendar of events of events used to guide schools on what to be done at a given time.
The CS has been doing a lot of things which keep leaving everyone wondering, he acts in a way that no one understands. He is not a person whose moves can easily be predicted. He changed the examination dates and as an addition to this, he shortened the period in which the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams takes to complete.
As a move to curb any irregularities before during and after the National Examinations, especially for secondary schools, he made great changes on the third term of the schools’ calendar, which is critical for both teachers, students and parents. Many of the activities that are used to take place at this time were banned, including prayer days. The normal half-term brakes, visiting days and any sports activities never took place as it was stated that such occasions contributed to exam cheating.
Finally, shock came in when KCPE results were released early than expected, something that has never taken place in the history of the Kenyan education sector. We were used to receiving them at the end of December after Christmas, while KCSE was released in February. This year everything changed.
This year, schools are not going to celebrate as it is the norm, where they get over 200 plain A’s in one school. This year, a total of 577,253 candidates registered for the exams, out of which only 88,929 managed to score above C+. 141 candidates managed to score A’s. 4641 candidates scored A- (minus) and 10975 candidates scored B+ (plus).
From the results, it is clear that 85 percent of the total number of students who sat for the exams scored below C+, which brings about a number of questions to be answered. What are the reasons behind this? Is it that our schools have made students to believe that they will be given examination answered therefore making them relax instead of revising? This year’s results are genuine and they were worked for by the students. They need to be celebrated more than any other year in the past.
Matiang’i has made us believe that in the past years, students were being spoon-fed with results. They never worked hard to achieve whatever they got yet they ended up securing positions in our universities. Does it mean that our current universities are filed with half-baked students? The god thing is that more transformations and revelations are yet to be experienced in the education sector for the period that Matiang’i will be there.
Related: This Man Fred Matiang’i
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