Teachers should not pass the buck in exams failure

The annual secondary school principals’ conference ended in Mombasa on Friday and critical issues were discussed.

Top on the agenda was reforms in the education system to make it more relevant to market needs. Revelations that close to 600,000 students have scored D+ and below in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations in the past four years were shocking. It means that the graduates – if they can be called that – leave barely literate and numerate after four years in high school.

It means they have little chance of advancing to higher education. It is thus not farfetched to conclude that they are among the idle and skill-less young people who throng urban and rural areas.

It goes without saying they contribute, even if partly, to spiraling crime and other social vices. For example, 100,000 of 305,000 candidates, who sat KCSE scored D+ and below last year. This is a third of the candidature and huge wastage.

The issue is critical and will make principals, teachers and other players in education focus on solutions that will make education more efficient.

Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association has a point: That the education system is too examination-oriented and has little room for learners whose talents lie elsewhere.

Those who do not perform well in the examinations are condemned as failures. But they have talent galore in sports, drama, music and art, among other skills. Even if a candidate scored ‘A’ in music, but has a poor grade overall, he is deemed to have failed the examination.

Last year, about 70,000 KCSE candidates scored C+ and above. But the seven public universities will admit less than 20,000 in the regular programme, and could pick a similar number in the so-called parallel degree courses.

Cheating

Factor in private universities and colleges and a huge number of qualified candidates will miss out. This is the higher education challenge. These must lie in youth polytechnics at the grassroots.

It was surprising the head teachers pointed an accusing finger at the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) for the mass failure in secondary schools. Granted, the council has had many challenges in administering national tests. Cheating in national examinations has not only become a cancer, but also high-tech.

Students, parents, teachers and businessmen conspire to score highly in the cutthroat competition that examinations have become. Technology, especially mobile telephony, has made the conspiracy faster and more discreet.

But Knec has always acted forcefully: Examination results are cancelled and suspects prosecuted.

Teachers are not innocent and they must shoulder much of the blame. The basic problem is this: Students fail because they are not well taught or prepared for examinations. Teachers do not complete the syllabus and most candidates are strangers to examinations. Teachers are thus sleeping on the job.

A recent World Bank report ranked Kenya the second most affected country by teacher absenteeism. Even when taught, some topics are so poorly handled that students get confused.

The problem? Head teachers, who are supervisors of instruction, are sleeping on the job.

There is no magic to these things: Teachers must cover the syllabus and cover it well. Head teachers, deputies and heads of department must play their supervisory role effectively to make education fulfilling and wholesome.