NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 28 – The Ministry of Education has abolished the ranking of secondary schools and students based on the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has signed a circular to this effect saying “there will (now) be regular review and recasting of school performance merit measuring.”
The Ministry of Education has previously defined the ranking system as unfair as it did not take into account the holistic development of students.
A situation that led the adoption of a parallel ranking of schools based on non-academic performance.
Similar action was taken by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) in 2008 for the reason that it led teachers to ‘drill’ their students – as opposed to creating understanding – in the pressure to top the rankings.
In a bid to address the complaints of inflated fees in public secondary schools where tuition is covered by the government, the Ministry of Education has also directed that a ‘lean’ non-teaching staff be engaged.
The Teacher’s Service Commission has also been directed to ensure, “equitable distribution and optimum utilisation of teachers on the basis of enrollment and curriculum,” to keep parents from having to pay for additional teachers.
The school managements have also been directed to procure secondary school uniforms through an open tendering system and to ensure that they are suitable, “for all weather conditions,” and that uniforms required for sports, applied and technical subjects are, “simple and universally available.”
Again as a cost cutting measure and to ensure available resources are used as efficiently as possible, schools with less than two streams of between 25 to 45 learners will be merged with the exception of those in arid and semi-arid areas.
The establishment of new schools will require the sanction of the Education Cabinet Secretary on the basis of school mapping data.
