This archive report was first published on 8 December 2019.
Published on December 8, 2019, by XN Iraki, The Standard.
Selection to secondary schools for 2019 KCPE candidates is over, with top scorers getting into their first choice institutions. However, for those who scored less, the choices are limited.
Interestingly, the selectivity of Kenya's top national schools is even more impressive when compared to America's top universities, the Ivy League. Kenya's top national schools beat Ivy universities hands down in selectivity, as shown in the table below.
Despite the scarcity of good schools, the popularity of these schools shows the power of the brand. The top schools have produced Kenya's prominent people in public and private sectors, and have been around for a long time. Examples include Maseno, established in 1906, and Alliance in 1926.
However, their selectivity makes them even more popular, and admitting all who apply would lose their appeal and coolness. The parallel programme did this to public universities, and promoting some formerly provincial schools to national schools has only increased competition for the original 17 national schools.
Where will the less performing children who used to get admitted to the newly promoted schools go? It takes time to build the school brand, except for Starehe Girls, which rode on the boys' school name. When did the government last build a high school from scratch?
Increasing the number of national schools had unintended consequences, with the popularity of the old schools soaring. The large number of national schools diluted their brand, and children and parents therefore prefer known brands.
Given too many choices in a restaurant, we often go for what's familiar. That is why five-star hotels and Java have ugali in their menu nowadays. The number of children applying for the top national schools, which are filled to the brim, shows how scarce good schools are.
How do we reduce scarcity of good schools? One way is to assign KCPE candidates to all secondary schools randomly, irrespective of their performance. This would give every school an equal chance of getting good and bad students, and would allow them to compete as equals.
However, this model is unlikely to be adopted, and we shall continue being Darwinian, being selective, and favouring those already endowed by nature. Think of it, who needs Alliance and its facilities more; a student who scored 200 marks out of 500 or one who scored 442? The latter will excel in any school.
Selectivity in education systems based on performance in standardised exams is a time-honoured tradition, cutting across poor and rich countries and political systems. Even countries like the USA without national exams have aptitude tests like ACT or SAT. Most countries have special schools for the selected, from Ivy League universities to Oxbridge.
Will KCPE be replaced by another exam as children transit from junior to high school? What will happen to our highly coveted schools once CBC is rolled out? These are hard but important questions to answer.
