By Sam Otieno and Harold Ayodo
As the March 31 deadline for KCSE registration draws near, head teachers are forcing weak candidates to repeat Form Three to boost their schools’ mean score in the examination.
Even with the abolition of ranking of schools in the national examinations competition among schools is so cutthroat that students who refuse to repeat are expelled with some institutions sending home as many as 20 Form Four students who scored mean grade D+ and below in the end of Form Three exam.
And those who agree to repeat do not receive a refund of the examination fees instead the money is converted into school fees. The schools also retain the Sh10,260 tuition fee per student that the Government disburses to public secondary schools annually.
The situation is threatening to degenerate into a crisis because few schools are willing to admit the expelled students.
Now some schools have resorted to weeding out weak students right from Form One as Mr George Musibala can attest to. When Musibala’s daughter scored 321 of 500 marks in KCPE in 2008 and was admitted to Western’s The Sacred Heart Girls High, Mukumu, a top provincial school, her future looked bright. But what a difference a year makes.
Grade E
At the beginning of this term he was summoned to the school and told that his daughter would not be allowed to proceed to Form Two because she scored grade E in the end of third term examination. "I was summoned to Mukumu at the beginning of the term to discuss the performance of my daughter and told that she had to repeat." Musibala says.
He says the principal accused his daughter of indiscipline and expelled her when he ignored the advice. "The principal confidently told me to go and complain to Jogoo House (Ministry of Education)…I gave up because I have no connections," says Musibala, a father of six.
She got a place at Namunyiri Secondary, a district school in Bungoma. He had paid the Form Two First Term fees of Sh19,000. "My daughter lost hope after the school rejected her," Musibala says.
In another case at Mwingi’s Thokoa Secondary School more than 20 students who scored below D+ in the end of Form Three exam last year were sent home or forced to repeat leaving only 14 students in Form Four. Parents of the affected students have threatened to storm the district public school to seek an explanation why the school principal Benson Ndulu sent the weak students home.
"My daughter was sent home because she scored grade D in Form Three. I believe she can work hard and improve her grades in Form Four but the principal expelled her," says a parent who declined to be mentioned for fear of victimisation.
When The Standard visited the school, some students said they had no choice but to repeat Form Three because they had been threatened with expulsion. "I performed poorly because I was in and out of school due lack of school fees, I still face the same problem and I do not know whether I will stick in Form Three forever," says a student. "I have struggled to educate my daughter this far and I can not afford to pay her school fees again for two years," says a parent.
Weak students
Mr Ndulu was away at a seminar in Eldoret when we visited the school at the weekend, but a teacher present confirmed that indeed weak students were sent home.
"My work is only to teach and I have no say in matters to do with running of the school, that is why I cannot question why the students were sent home," says the teacher who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the school.
If the students do not succeed in overturning the expulsion before the exam registration deadline, Thokoa Secondary will pocket more than Sh200, 000 in Government tuition subsidies for services not rendered. Those expelled or forced to repeat include Nancy Muthinzi, Franciscah Nyamai, Priscar Sammy, Franciscah Kimanzi, Patrick Muthangya, Fredrick Kangui, Benson Kimanzi, Elizabeth Mundwa, Peter Kasina, and Muli Mboo. Others are Felistus Muli, Margaret George, Agnes Tabitha, Faith Munuve and Regina Jacob.
In a similar case in a private school in Homa Bay District, a senior teacher announced during Parent’s Day that about 20 girls were not going to be enrolled for KCSE. Shocked parents called our Newsroom in Kisumu to complain but when The Standard went to the school to investigate the head teacher refuted their claims. "I don’t know about it. Registration is going on and all the girls are going to be registered. The teacher did not consult me," the principal said although she had been present at during the announcement and did not admonish the teacher. "We were surprised when a teacher told us the girls would not be registered for KCSE ," says a parent at the school, which has 36 girls in Form Four.
Warning schools
Early last year, suspended Education PS Karega Mutahi issued a circular warning schools that no student should be forced to repeat. Assistant Director in charge of communication at the ministry John Mwandikwa says the ministry is aware that some schools force students to repeat behind the back of the ministry, which is wrong. He says the ministry would take action on reported cases.
Yet about 520 students from various schools in West Pokot district were recently expelled for performing poorly in end term examinations. The 320 boys and 200 girls were forced to repeat after failing to achieve the unofficial cut-off marks. Tartar Girls, Propoi Girls and Chewoyet High School told weak students to seek places in other schools.
At Tartar Girls 83 students including 12 in Form Four were sent home at the beginning of this term. It took the intervention of the Ministry of Education for the public provincial and district schools to re-admit the students unconditionally.
— Additional Nick Anyuor
