By Peter Orengo

Government has elevated 30 provincial schools to the league of national status, over which there is cutthroat competition and first-class facilities. The bold move not only upsets the tradition where the number of such privileged schools has remained constant since Independence, but seeks to whet the national appetite for this cadre of schools across the country.

This year, the clamour for national school places, which are perennial top performers and boast of superior facilities peaked, prompting the Ministry of Education to scratch its head on how to solve the problem.

The new list, drawn by a team of Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association with the full knowledge of the Education ministry, identified top performing schools from the eight provinces for a State-funded face-lift.

The schools were selected from different counties and will each receive Sh25 million for infrastructure upgrading, and be ready to take in more students next year.

It is expected that once the process is finalised, the national schools will be able to absorb 10,000 students next year. This year, the current 18 national schools were able to take only 4,000 students.

Education Permanent Secretary Prof James ole Kiyiapi announced that Government had planned to upgrade 94 schools — two boys and two girls schools in each of the 47 counties — to national level but budgetary constraints would not allow.

"The ministry has opted to implement the programme in phases. For a start, 30 schools will be considered this year, and then the number will be increased every year until each county is represented," revealed ole Kiyiapi at an educational stakeholders meeting in Nairobi.

He said to realise the objective of the programme, the Education ministry had developed guiding criteria to identify the institutions to be upgraded. "Performance of the schools over time has been considered since a school worthy of the tag "national" must set the way in terms of academic performance," said the PS.

He challenged other schools that have requested for consideration for upgrading and have not achieved the set grade to improve on their current performance.

Some of the schools may also require further preparation in terms of the range of curriculum.

National unity

"We noted the level of preparedness of the institutions in terms of basic infrastructure and basic amenities like water, power, available land and communication network," explained Kiyiapi.

He said the Government would also revise the current quota system of selection to national schools and explained a new acceptable system will be agreed upon by stakeholders but he was of the opinion that five per cent be slated for external students so that locals get preference.

Education stakeholders have in the past shown reservation about the programme saying it may deny locals slots in the proposed national schools.

But the Education PS denies this. "The current national schools were established in pre-independent Kenya for the colonialist’s children. What we want is to change this mindset. We want all Kenyans to also travel to other parts of the country to interact with others," he argued. He said the community had bestowed on the Education ministry the role of promoting national unity and social cohesion.

This would happen in the school situation if students have both the opportunity to excel in studies and also travel outside their areas and interact with others.

It is expected with implementation of this first phase, the government will have created a total of 6,000 new places for new students. Of these, 3,240 will be boys and an additional 2,760 for girls.

And in the counties, a total of 18,000 additional places will have been created — bringing a total of 22,500 Form One places when considered together with the existing vacancies in national schools countrywide.

This will bring the number of students in national schools to 90,000 up from the current 15,638.

The Government says it plans to employ all teachers working on contract by next year to take care of the expected increased turnout of students. Another 10,000 fresh teachers will then be employed thereafter.

This year, over 4,500 candidates were selected to join national schools in a new formula that dealt a blow to private primary schools.

In the new arrangement, pupils in public schools got a boost as many were admitted to national schools with as low as 373 marks compared to 411 for their counterparts in academies. Private schools got 1,224 places and public schools admitted 3,293.

Private Schools

Apart from good performance, factors considered during selection include equity in terms of geographic spread, gender parity and affirmative action.

But the three main objectives for elevation of the schools according to the Government include the need to promote national integration and cohesion in students to be in line with the Constitution, promotion of high standards of excellence and creation of new spaces to cater for an increasing student population.

In the past, increased demand for access to national schools was pegged on, among other factors, emergence of a middle-class generation that views them as a gateway to prestigious careers like medicine, engineering and law.

A policy shift in the 1980s that saw only 15 per cent of slots in national schools reserved for pupils outside their provinces of location is seen as having watered down the spirit of integration and instead nurtured an ‘in-breeding’ system that diminished options for those studying outside such regions.

This has been used by some quarters in the education sector to explain rise in the number of private schools that have outshone public ones that saw parents send their children to national schools.

Private school managers are predictably against formation of national schools in the counties.