We congratulate all 2010 KCSE candidates who received their results yesterday. But the continuing decline in performance by girls in both KCPE and KCSE and the overall drop in mathematics and sciences across the genders is worrying.
The results released by the Minister for Education indicate the gap between the genders has widened. Only 36,000 female students scored the minimum university entry mark of C+, representing just 23.17 per cent of the total number of candidates.
Boys nearly doubled this with 60,000 scoring C+. KCSE national examination is a transition point for the students, and determines their social mobility. From hereon, the lucky candidates will either move on to university or join other tertiary institutions. The less lucky often find themselves with few choices. Such is the harsh reality of Kenya’s education landscape.
Which is why the work of the taskforce looking at realigning the current education system with the country’s needs is so urgent. With limited places in public universities and the high cost of private ones, many candidates from poor backgrounds either have to join ill-equipped colleges for certificate courses or diplomas in disciplines not of their choice, or repeat the national exam.
Secondary education is not just about the final exam, but is the sum of the entire four years the students were in high school before enrolling as KCSE candidates. Is the increased secondary school enrolment partly responsible for the predicament female candidates now face? Unlike boys, girls face unique problems in high school that require unique interventions.
North Eastern, Nyanza and Coast are the most affected with regard to the female candidates, as well as overall performance, and the MPs from these regions would do well to work with the schools, parents and the Ministry of Education to come up with solutions, instead of issuing condemnations.
This approach has worked in Central, Eastern and Rift Valley, and can be replicated there without difficulty.
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