Business Daily (Nairobi)
10 November 2009
editorial
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination kicks off on Tuesday with some 727,000 candidates -- the highest in the test's history -- sitting it.
The examination starts against the unfortunate background of reports of widespread cheating in the Form Four test, the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, which began in mid October-- an unpalatable situation for the hopeful candidates who have been working themselves out for the last eight years and thousands of parents who have spent hard-earned cash to see their children through education.
Thought it has not been as rampant in KCPE, the problem with cheating is that apart from the fact it gives the culprits a clear unfair advantage in the fight for good secondary schools, there is always the risk that the results of honest, diligent students would be cancelled by the examiner.
Also, the fact that cheating is rife is a dreadful psychological burden on the candidates.
This is why the Kenya National Examinations Council needs to put its act together and stamp out cheating by re-examining its quality control and security plans with a view to sealing the loopholes.
An equally disturbing problem with the education system is the wastage it generates each year because of inadequate Form One places.
This year, alone more than 250,000 pupils missed chances because the secondary schools are too few --there are only about 4,250 secondary schools compared to 18,900 primary schools.
The situation has been worsened by the fact that enrolment has shot up to 7.4 million pupils this year from 5.9 million in 2002, mainly because of the free education programme.
The Government ought to build and equip more secondary schools to boost the transition rates and give more meaning to the free primary education.
It also needs to equip the more than 800 youth polytechnics across the country with modern facilities so that pupils who genuinely fail to qualify for secondary schools can comfortably get enrolled in the colleges, acquire useful kills and get on with life.
It wouldn't make sense to put millions of children through primary schools if the education they get does not improve their chances of earning a decent income.
The number of private primary schools has increased due to demand. But the commercial aspect is fuelling unhealthy competition.
Public primary schools must be pulled up to measure up to the academies in terms of teacher-pupil ratio and equipment to level the playing field.
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