Address issue of poor grades in public schools

According to last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results, public primary schools performed dismally compared to private schools.

According to Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, the poor performance of public schools was due to last year’s teachers’ strike.

Last year, teachers downed their tools and paralysed learning in all public schools for more than a month, thus wasting valuable time for learners.

Despite the Jubilee administration promise to resolve the teachers’ salary dispute, the issue is still pending.

Learners bear the brunt of teachers’ strike thus gravely compromising their performance. Worse, credible source point out that teachers in public schools have the propensity to abscond duties thus making a bad situation worse. Moreover, public schools are faced with the problem of bloated enrolment after introduction of free primary education.

Skewed teacher-pupil ratio, inadequate facilities and delayed disbursement of free education funds have exacerbated the problem, hence mediocre performance in national exams.

It behooves both the national and county governments to address this issue of lacklustre performance of public schools. Tomorrow’s success begins today.