Exam results spell doom for rural headteachers

BY Nikko Tanui

Headteachers whose schools have a track record of hogging the headlines for excellent performance in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams can sleep easy from the day their candidates sit the exam till the results are released.

However, some of their colleagues, especially those in remote schools, have sleepless nights that make the Christmas holidays a nightmare.

Sometimes, it is a matter of life and death for countryside headteachers. You see, the moment word goes round that the headteacher has brought home the much-anticipated KCPE results and, God forbid, they are not (as usual) anything to write home about, some parents scream murder.

Villagers armed with all manner of crude weapons have chased many headteachers up and down the village roads like chicken thieves.

And you can bet that had it not been for their quick feet or the local chief calming down the irate mob, they would have been sent to prematurely meet their maker.

The matter is so serious that most rural headteachers sneak into their offices at night to pin up the KCPE results.

Then they go underground until the school reopens for the new school year, hoping that parents’ anger would have subsided by then.