Prof George Magoha, Education Cabinet Secretary
Hello Nyakundi,
Kindly send this communication to the Ministry of Education and specifically to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), Kenyas sole examining body. I dare say we go back to the Cambridge Matriculation Board.
Well, it was alright for the colonizer to mess with our formal education. But when the KNEC messes the little ones through its exams and choice of secondary schools,it is something to mourn for.
First and foremost, one wonders why the KNEC marks exams in a hurry messing with the kids Christmas celebrations!! Why not release the KCPE results on the 3rd of January of the new year?
In the past we opened Form one in February every year and covered the syllabus. Why the hurry now only to end up with a long end of year recess for kids to be messed by drugs, radicalization and premarital sex? Thats not cool, or is it?
Even the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results should not be hurried! End of January of the new year is good enough! I remember the EACE results used to be out in March after the exam year. Then those joining Form 5 did so in April, a month after. Why hurry the KCSE kid? He or she can relax a while before joining other institutions of higher Education or technical training. So why mess this kids Christmas and New Year celebrations? Who wants to celebrate while relatives are mourning their results that might be short of their expectations?
THE ONGOING PROCESS OF SELECTING FORM ONE SCHOOLS FOR 2021!
To begin with one wonders why the selection is being done now. What will the kid do in 2020, first term. The kid need to discuss these choices with their parents and other relatives during the December School holidays.
THE KNECs LIST OF THE SCHOOLS THE KID IS SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE FROM.
The KNEC has posted a list with all the 8000+ Kenyan public schools.
Out of these schools, the poor kid is to choose 11 schools categorized as National, Extra County, County and Subcounty schools.
I read an unfortunate hidden agenda aimed at advantaging some kids and disadvantaging others. Let me give just a few examples.
One, there are those ORIGINAL national schools we all know and chose as our first choice in those days. Now they have all been put in Cluster 3. Why?
So the kids start by choosing the National Schools in Cluster 1 and 2. By the time it is admission time in 202, the kids and their parents,will have forgotten the order of their choices. Therefore it is easy to place the kid in a school they never chose.
Two, I dont know whether it is by design or default but in cluster 1and 2, there are no Girls Schools from the Former Central Province. Yet there are 5 schools from the former Eastern Province. Why is this the case?
Three, how is a kid from Narok or Nairobi or Kisumu or Nyeri expected to choose a National School in Mandera County? It takes up to 3 days by bus to get to such a county travelling in Landmine areas and banditry zones. How cool is it to force such kids to choose such schools? And is a National School in Mandera equal to one in Nyanza?
Should a kid get admitted there they will lose the chance...can't even afford the fare there. Worse still, the teenager might commit suicide or run away from home. Is this what KNEC wants for the Kenyan kid?
AN URGENT PLEA FOR MERCY FROM KNEC FOR THE KENYAN KID.
Kindly, postpone these choices to February next year, 2020. This will enable the kid to have a look at these choices with their relatives, now away, during the December school recess. Demanding that rural parents make choices with their kids in a hurry is not right. Again the headteacher is not obliged to make choices for the kids. Some malicious ones can make bad choices for the kids.
Again these 11 schools can be reduced to 5 schools under 3 categories viz. 2 National schools from 2 logically fixed categories.
Let the young teenager choose schools near their counties. They are just kids who need to feel they are near home.
- Extra County schools again from 2 logically fixed categories. Again the kid should choose one school in their county and one from a neighbouring county.
1 County School in the kids County.
As for the subcounty school, let the kid choose the school near their home as it has always been.
Do we expect a kid from Nyamira to choose a subcounty school in Marsabit? So all these many subcounty schools should not appear in the KNEC LIST.
The kids and their parents know where they are and with the 100% transition, they only need to visit a school of their choice and pick their admission letter in February 2021. No need to go to Form 1 in January!
Shosh