Reactions to school ranking from education stakeholders in Nakuru

Nakuru, Kenya: Failure to rank academic performance of candidates, schools and counties in national examinations by Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has received different reactions by education stakeholders in Nakuru County.

Nakuru County Executive Committee (CEC) Member Prof Margaret Kitetu welcomed the move saying ranking discourage average students from striving to perform well academically.

Speaking to Standard over phone interview, Kitetu observed that ranking also attribute to students congesting in some schools that are claimed to perform well leaving others with few students.

Kitetu said each student has his or her ability that should be motivated by teachers, parents and education stakeholders to enable them further their careers.

"It is wrong to rank students according to performance, this has highly attributed to high drop out of students with low performance records," said Kitetu.

The CEC further pointed that ranking makes teachers and students to only concentrate on academic performance leaving other curriculum activities and molding of students morally upright to fit back in the society.

"It is wrong for children to only concentrate on books leaving other issues. Ranking will enable teachers concentrate on other activities vital for growth of children while undertaking academics," she said.

The Coordinator of Integrated schools in Nakuru Jane Chesire on her part objected the move by Ministry of Education saying it will kill the spirit of competition among teachers and students in academics.

Chesire said ranking of schools and students in national examination enable poor performers strive harder to attain better marks.

"System of releasing results without ranking kills the spirit of competition, we live in a competitive society that help us better our weaker areas by learning from each other," said Chesire.

According to her, ranking help parents to take their children to better schools in academic and also mould them into better individuals to fit back in the society after school.

Ranking in the past has enabled teachers strive to better performance of their students to avoid shame during release of examinations, she noted.

She further observed that it is through ranking that the ministry can easily identify cause of poor performance of schools for instance congestion, lack of infructures and teachers shortages.

"There are complains that some schools perform better than others due to poor learning environment. It is only through ranking that causes of poor performance can be realized through conducting intensive research by education stakeholders for concrete solutions," said Chesire.

On students with disability, the coordinator said ranking always encouraged them to compete fairly with normal students.

"Ranking also creates a competitive environment among children with disability who always want to achieve better marks like regular students," she added.