Rise of ‘CDF schools’: Blessing or curse?

By Nicholas Anyuor

Since the establishment of the Constituency Development Fund in 2003, more and more people have been ripping its benefits in health, business, infrastructure and education sectors. In particular, CDF has contributed a lot in transforming the education sector through sponsoring needy learners, building schools and equipping others.

Thanks to the development kitty, almost every village has a secondary school. In some areas, residents have demanded that every primary school to have a secondary wing for accessibility and faster transition rate.

For instance, in Muhoroni constituency, where the Education Assistant Minister Ayiecho Olweny is MP, CDF has built several of them, commonly referred to as ‘CDF schools’. The minister says before the coming of CDF, the constituency had only nine secondary schools, but the number has since increased to 30.

“Proper use (of CDF) in education has seen many schools built and now many children can afford education because these are cheap day schools,” he says.

Can do better

Prof Olweny argues that such schools do not compromise the quality of education since they have produced good grades at the national exams. He cites Manera Secondary in his area, which ranked 14th best district school in last year’s KCSE.

“This is one of the CDF schools we have built and is performing even better than some established ones. So we can’t say they do not perform well,” he adds.

However, educationists and parents differ with Ayiecho, saying the flooding of CDF schools, though a blessing to the improvement of literacy levels, are killing the quality of education.

Andrew Odira, 30, a parent in Kimai village in Nyatike District, argues that something should be done to control construction of these institutions, saying they will become irrelevant with time.

He says most of these schools do not have enough facilities, admit ‘failed’ pupils from primary schools and are hardly well staffed.

No special training

“Some of the schools’ teachers completed their secondary education as early as 1980s and have received no special training in education, others are just Form Four leavers regardless of what they scored in KCSE and only few of these schools have university students teaching there while on vacations,” he says.

He says in five years, his West Kadem location has got more than six new secondary schools.

Financial constraints

“Having schools is not bad, but I think we should be developing one at a time,” he urges.

Similar sentiments are echoed by Mr Vincent Makori, a secondary school principal in Nyamira. He says such schools could turn a ‘curse’ if the trend is not controlled. He says most of these schools have low student population leading to inadequate funds hence can’t hire qualified teachers and subordinates.

The quality of students admitted to the schools is questionable as educationists argue the heads would want to see the classes full regardless of a student’s performance in KCPE. Mr Makori says some schools admit students with less than 200 out of 500 marks in KCPE to attract more students for bigger population.

Emuhaya DEO Pamela Akello says even though the establishment of such schools is in line with Government policies on expanding education, quality has to be a priority.

“We should not offer anything less than quality education,” she remarks.

She says since teachers in such school are Form Four leavers, there is no continuity or consistence in teaching methods because students are taught by “teachers on the move”.

Schools Vs Transition rates

“One teaches for months and goes away, leaving students in the hands of another who might also not take longer,” she adds.

However, Kuppet Secretary-General Akello Misori says these schools improve transition rates besides enhancing literacy level.

“Basic education is very important regardless of the grades one attains. Education means a lot including socialisation and integration of a variety of values,” says Misori, adding that such schools are greatly boosting the Government efforts to achieve education for all, though they might water down education quality and achievement of Vision 2030.

Ayiecho says such schools have to be registered with the Government for support.