County governments, teachers plan to rank 2014 KCPE students

Bill Kipkemoi, the second best 2014 KCPE candidate nationwide (he scored 439 marks), is lifted up in celebration by family members in Kericho County. Counties want to join teachers in ranking candidates. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

County governments and teachers are set to collaborate and rank the 2014 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates and primary schools in their respective areas.

Council of Governors (CoG) Chairman Isaac Ruto and Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony said Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi's ban on ranking had left county governments groping in the dark on which schools to focus on in efforts to improve education standards.

"Once teachers resume teaching, we are going to sit down with them and rank the schools in a bid to enable county governments identify the best and worst performing schools.

"They will, therefore, identify strategies required to improve the latter since the school (s) could be lacking classrooms, textbooks, and teachers, among other crucial educational matters," said Ruto.

He argued that failure to rank schools by the Education CS would create room for sly parents and crooked school principals to 'quietly sneak' learners to Form One in highly rated secondary schools, in place of bright pupils from disenfranchised backgrounds.

The governors made the remarks at Chepkechei Secondary School in Kipkelion West Constituency.

Notable schools

Chepkwony said he had set aside Sh90 million to be shared among bright but needy students who would be admitted to notable secondary schools, and tertiary colleges and universities.

He said his administration had hired 750 Early Childhood Development Education teachers.

He also said he had set aside Sh100 million through the Jitegemee kitty and encouraged entrepreneurs to apply for the cash.

Kipkelion West MP Jackson Rop appealed to the Government and teachers' unions, led by Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, to immediately reach an agreement over their pay demand and terms of service to end the teachers' strike.

He, nonetheless, claimed that Parliament's Education committee had approved teachers to be paid according to the 1997 agreement.

Ruto claimed over 200,000 Bomet residents had signed the governor's petition to back the quest for a referendum and the State was better advised to increase revenue allocation to counties by 45 per cent of last year's revenue collection.

"The country is ultimately headed for a referendum unless Parliament agrees to grant counties 45 per cent of revenue collection," he said.