By Nicholas Anyuor
Even as Form One students continue reporting to their new schools, the criterion of their selection that was recently introduced by the Ministry of Education remains controversial.
Through the quota system, about 6,000 pupils from public schools were able to join national schools against 4,000 private school counterparts.
Private school stakeholders argue, through the system, the Government is punishing pupils over it’s failure to furnish public schools for fair competition.
However, for supporters of the criterion, the cry by academies is because the system could easily pass as threat to their business. They argue the criterion was bringing equality and ensures the Government institutions were not rendered useless.
Educationists who spoke to Education say pupils in public schools face serious problems, with some schools having no adequate teachers and pupils going to class in empty stomachs in some cases.
Nora Awuor, 15, is a classical example of what some learners in public schools face. She her KCPE last year at Okenge Primary in the interior of Kadem in Nyatike and scored 341 of 500 marks.
She recalls, painfully, how, after the death of her father, she has been struggling to balance between helping her sickly mother and her studies. Sometimes, she would not find food at home, would fetch water from nearby dam before walking to school, but, she says, her ambition to excel remained her driving force.
Opportunity
"Some people misadvised me to get married to avoid such ‘suffering’, but I couldn’t listen. My only time to study was when in school. We could not afford paraffin for our tin lamp," she recalls.
Perhaps, this forms the basis on why educationists appeal to the Government to stick to the quota system of admission to Form One since it was giving bright pupils from poor backgrounds opportunity to join best secondary schools.
Migori’s Alendo Primary deputy head teacher Julius Ong’oya says those against the criterion should first understand the pathetic conditions in which pupils in public schools undergo.
He says of his pupils, "Sometimes pupils report to school without taking bath and even some sacrifice their school time to take their livestock to the scarce water sources."
"Others have lost parents to HIV/Aids and are forced to take care of their old grandparents and still score over 300 marks. These are bright children," he says.
Emuhaya DEO Pamela Akelo says Government should favour pupils from public schools since they learn under difficulties.
She says a pupil who scores 350 marks from a rural public school could score 400 marks in a good private school.
"The Government should give more chances to pupils from public schools because they don’t disappoint in secondary. This will also reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and social injustice," she adds.
Contact hours
Akelo says in private schools there are adequate facilities and teachers thus pupils have more contact hours with teachers.
Educationists argue the Government should further lower marks for pupils learning in public schools since their performance in secondary schools is often better and more should be admitted to better schools.
University grades
Solomon Abayo, a principal at Kameji Secondary School in Rongo, agrees most of the pupils he admits with less than 300 marks from public schools manage university grades while some from private schools with over 400 marks do not.
"From experience, some of those from these bad public schools perform better than those from private schools with high marks. When one comes to your school with high marks you expect a lot, but some of them disappoint," he says.
Kisumu Girls’ High School principal Mary Akunja says majority of girls in her school who have attained university grades were from public primary schools especially from rural areas. She, however, says there are some from private primary schools who perform well.
"Those from rural public schools perform pretty well especially in Sciences and Mathematics," she says.
Akunja adds that sometimes it was hard to understand a student from a private school, scoring over 400, but becomes the weakest student in class.
"The only challenge pupils from rural public schools have is in languages, but some catch up very fast," she says.
And Michael, a teacher at an academy in Nyanza, says teaching in private schools was geared towards excellent performance and teachers could be penalised for failing the target.
"Here we do anything possible to ensure the child passes, but not all of our students are bad."
Unbearable conditions
Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary General Okuta Osiany admits some conditions pupils in public schools face are unbearable and that it was on this basis that many people were taking their children to private schools.