By Bivern Wekesa

Since the inception of Free Primary Education, public primary schools have been performing poorly in national examinations.

The recent KCPE results left many people wondering what could be the problem. And the causes of this cannot singularly be attributed to the Government. Teachers and parents are equally to blame.

Teachers in public schools are less enthusiastic and only start teaching pupils when preparing for an examination. This has led to poor preparation of candidates in the schools while in private schools they start preparing early.

Some teachers in public schools spend more time gossiping or engaging in private business than teaching. This is linked to poor leadership where most head teachers in public primary schools rarely ensure teachers teach.

Important to note is also that most teachers in private schools are young and energetic.

Research has shown young people are more productive and TSC should employ teachers immediately they graduate from college.

Money is not the only mode of motivation. Most private schools do not give their teachers huge salaries but they work round the clock to make sure candidates pass.

This calls for school heads to devise means of motivating teachers. The easiest method is to lead by example. Through this, their juniors will be influenced to work hard. School heads should also convince their juniors they are in a noble profession. They should, however, be careful not to coerce them as doing so may render them unproductive and inefficient.

For the public schools to perform better, the Government should be more involved in routine inspection of teaching.

The first batch of the Free Primary Education received their results with Education Minister Sam Ongeri saying the number has grown by 27 per cent with a marked improvement in many subjects.

The minister said the country had 587,961 candidates in 2003 sitting KCPE, compared to 746,080 last year.

The introduction of FPE in 2003 has enabled the country realise a significant growth in primary school enrolment from 5.9 million in 2003 to 8.6million in 2010 representing a 45.8 per cent growth.

However, despite the huge enrolment at Standard One, this is not replicated at the end of the eight-year course. The minister attributed this to transition due to repetition, HIV and Aids related challenges.

This increase in candidate indicates the FPE has enhanced access and equity in education for most Kenyans who would have had no chance to primary education.

Investigations should be carried out to establish the reasons behind decline in performance of subjects like Kiswahili and Science.

While releasing KCPE results, Prof Ongeri said although performance had generally improved in seven out of nine subjects, performance in Kiswahili was dismal.

Girls performed better than boys in English and Kiswahili while boys performed better than girls in the other subjects.

Lack of adequate teachers has continued to affect arid and semi-arid areas like North Eastern Province where the number of candidates has increased from 4,645 in 2003 to 11,071 last year, representing 138.34 per cent rise.

In Coast Province, also considered a hardship area, the candidature increased from 32,213 in 2003 to 63,348, a 96.7 per cent rise.

—The writer is a teacher at Teremi High School in Bungoma.