Progressive assessments better for Kenya than national exam

Prof. Makau Mutua

I know that every Makau, Otieno and Hassan has a reason why high school kids have been torching dorms. But you know what they say about opinions — everyone has one. In other words, there’s no shortage of theories. However, one reason that has received little attention is the fact of mandatory national exams as a ticket to the next stage. I know cartels of cheaters have been blamed for the infernos. But not the exams themselves. I want to suggest that national exams — KCPE and KCSE — are an illusory measure of academic merit and excellence. In fact, those exams are a blight upon the land and the national psyche, and should be abolished — like yesterday.

I recently wrote in my day — the 1970s and 1980s — it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a student to go to a university in Kenya. In my primary school, only two of us made it to college — the rest were condemned. That’s because the system was designed to guillotine all but what could be called the Talented Tenth. In reality, I think over 50 per cent were either university material, or fit to enter technical institutions of higher learning. But the system wasn’t designed to free Kenyans from ignorance and illiteracy. No — its purpose was to create a snooty overbearing elite to serve the colonial and post-colonial states.