Lack of resources blamed for poor KCSE results in Mombasa

Questions abound over the performance of national secondary schools in Mombasa in the 2018 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE).

Educationists say since Mama Ngina and Shimo La Tewa secondary schools were elevated to national status they have not matched the performance of their peers in the country.

“The elevation of these schools has not come with requisite or expected resources from the national government,” said Prof Hassan Mwakimako, a lecturer at Pwani University.  

Mwakimako, an alumnus of Shimo La Tewa said the institution's performance in national examinations started to drop in late 1990s.

“Because of the poor performance the two institutions have not been able to attract the best students from primary schools,” he said adding that they have revived Shimo Old Boys Association (Soba) in a bid to boost the school's education standards.

According to results seen by this paper, Shimo La Tewa had a mean grade of 44.619 while Mama Ngina managed 57.3.

Outgoing Mombasa County Director of James Kariuki said Mama Ngina had 90 students and Shimo La Tewa 89 who scored C+ and above.

“They may have not had a top achiever but these numbers indicates that the schools did not fail as widely believed,” Mr Kariuki said on phone.

Kenya National Union of Teachers national executive council member for Coast Dan Oloo said the two institutions lack necessary infrastructure to perform like other national schools.

He said some bright students selected to join the two institutions in the past have turned down the offer forcing the schools to enroll students with as low as 200 marks in KCPE.

Kenya Coast National Polytechnic lecture Miano Kihu however urged for patience saying students enrolled in the schools based on the national schools criteria would sit KCSE in 2020 or 2019.  

“These schools were elevated two years ago so students enrolled after they were elevated have not sat exams,” said Mr Kihu.