Student forced to repeat Form Three after paying school fees

Ngelechei Maritim, a parent of a student who was forced to repeat Form Three at St Catherine Girls Secondary School, Kesses, Eldoret County. [PHOTO: KIBIWOTT KOROSS / STANDARD]

By KIBIWOTT KOROSS

Uasin Gishu: Ngelechei Maritim was shocked when he returned home to find his daughter waiting for him.

Having already paid half the fees, he had expected her to be in school.

However, she explained that the school administration had forced her to repeat Form Three. Devastated by the news, she refused to repeat and went back home.

Mr Maritim went to St Catherine Girls Secondary School, Kesses, in Uasin Gishu County, to demand an explanation over the matter. Several parents were also at the school to seek audience with the management after their children were forced to repeat classes or face expulsion.

“The head teacher told me that my child could not proceed to Form Four because her average performance for the year was below the cut-off mark set by the school,” Maritim said in an interview with The Standard on Saturday. About 25 students were forced to seek alternative schools.

Agreement

 The school administration said students who scored less than C- in the Form Three mock examinations would not proceed to the next class. “Why did the school collect fees knowing well that our children were not going to be admitted to Form Four?” posed a parent, Paul Kimeli. “I have cleared the term’s fees. My daughter has said she won’t repeat and I won’t to force her.”

The school principal Mary Okoth, however, defended the decision to ask students to repeat saying this was a resolution reached by parents during a previous meeting.“We agreed with the parents that a student who does not attain the required marks has to repeat. We are doing this for the sake of the pupils,” said Ms Okoth.

But Uasin Gishu County minister of education Enock Muigei said forced repetition was illegal. He promised that his office would investigate the matter. “We are going to investigate the matter and I call upon all parents whose children were forced to repeat to come to my office,” he said. “That is unfair. Schools should ensure they prepare their students well for examinations… students should be allowed to make their choices on whether to repeat or not,” he added. Although the Ministry of Education has outlawed forced repetition this is still widespread across the country.

Students perceived to be weak in academics are forced to repeat Standard Seven and Eight and Form Three and Four. This benefits the schools as they achieve higher mean grades. But many parents and students are not happy about it. There have been cases of students committing suicide when forced to repeat classes. In other cases, parents have resorted to legal action.

At the beginning of the term, a primary school pupil in Kenyenya, Kisii County, committed suicide after he was forced to repeat Standard Seven. Zachary Arina,18, a pupil at Gekongo Primary School, died after he consumed a pesticide.

His mother, Queen Arisa, said the boy was rushed to Kenyenya District Hospital but died while undergoing treatment. Two weeks ago, two Form Three students sued Mary Mount Secondary School in Molo for forcing them to repeat over claims of exam cheating. The students, Onyancha Nyanchoka and Keren Makori, went to court seeking orders to compel the school to allow them to proceed to Form Four.  But the school principal  Catherine Thuku defied the court directive to have the students join Form Four pending hearing of the case. The students got a reprieve after the school’s board of governors allowed them to proceed to the next class following a court order.   Lady Justice Roselyn Wendoh ordered the school to have the two students continue with studies.  Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has warned schools against forcing pupils to repeat and said culprits would face disciplinary and legal action.  He said: “I want to appeal to parents and other stakeholders to report such cases to education officials, government agencies or the police for appropriate action bearing in mind that forced repetition contravenes the Basic Education Act”.

The Teachers Service Commission Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni also warned schools against forcing students to repeat classes, especially Form Three. “Such incidents have caused untold suffering to students and parents,” Mr Lengoiboni said.

“School heads should know this is unacceptable as it is against government policy and the new Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights,” he added.  “In most cases, school administrators forced learners to repeat classes to improve their chances of emerging top performers in national examinations,” he said Weak learners in Standard Seven are targets for forced repetition while others are expelled altogether.

 Poor grades

An analysis of last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations results established that older pupils and those who repeated classes performed poorly.  The analysis showed that candidates aged 19 and 20 scored an average of 203 and 195 marks.

A report by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) showed the national rate of class repetition is 48 per cent. The practice is highest in Western at 54 per cent and lowest in North Eastern at 21 per cent.

SACMEQ, an inter-governmental agency involving 16 African countries, is mandated to carry out research to inform national and regional education policies.

With an estimated population of about 10 million students in primary schools, it means almost half are repeating classes with some doing so more than three times during their school life. This is an indicator that such students will eventually attain low grades or drop out of school altogether.

Of the estimated 1.3 million students who joined Standard One in 2005, only 840,000 sat KCPE last year as shown by the results released last December.

In a research brief published in October, an education expert with the Nairobi based Africa Population and Health Research Centre Dr Kassahun Admassu, quotes government figures which show that despite free primary education, completion rate is on the decline. He says the national level primary completion rate has declined from 83 per cent in 2009 to 77per cent in 2010.

Over-age students

“This suggests that just like its predecessors, the current free primary education programme may not be sustainable due to the massive surge in enrolment, which leads to a decline in the quality of education, repetition and dropouts.”

The Kenya National Association of Parents asked the Education Ministry to discourage enrollment of overage candidates for KCPE and KCSE. The association’s secretary general Musau Ndunda says the enrollment of over-age students for KCPE was to blame for poor grades. Mr Ndunda cited Machakos County where out of the 30,719 candidates who sat for KCPE last year, 20,696 were aged between16 and 20.

He attributed the problem to pupils being forced to repeat Standard Eight after performing poorly in KCPE.

Clara Sang, who asked her son to repeat Form Three, said parents should gauge their children’s performance before they recommend the same. She said the school administration advised her that the boy was capable of attaining better marks if he repeated in a different school. He qualified to join university.

According to Unesco Institute of Statistics, Kenya is listed eighth among 34 countries where more than 15 per cent of pupils in primary education are over age. This is after Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Equatorial Guinea, Angola,