Why KCPE is the gateway to economic success or misery

The highlights of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results is a list of 100 top students, nationally and regionally (provinces). This replaced the schools ranking which was seen as beneficial to private schools in form of free advertisement. However, this has not stopped schools from ensuring their pupils appear among the top 100, another proxy for ranking.
Let us think outside the box. Why should the whole nation be transfixed on its best brains, those already endowed by nature with high intellect? Should we not be focusing on the last 100 pupils nationally and regionally? Are these not the pupils who need our help most?
About a third of KCPE candidates will not go to secondary school. Who worries about this third? KCPE results and their publicity give us a glimpse into our thinking on economics of social mobility and how education is used by the elite as a conveyor belt.
Social mobilityKCPE results are not about marks; they are about economics and social mobility, and some would add exclusion. Those who excel at KCPE go to top schools, the national schools whose numbers have strangely remained the same despite the population increase. Follow them later in life and they are likely to get into best universities, and eventually the best jobs, in terms of prestige and money. Some suggest they also marry the most beautiful wives (and "unugly" husbands). It is this logical flow of success that has made middle class parents invest so heavily in education at primary school. In Kenya, parental investment in primary school has another driver, pupils who perform well at KCPE go to national schools, which offer cheap but quality education, courtesy of Government subsidy. Parents are therefore willing to pay dearly at primary or is it academy level to "reduce" the cost at high school level and possibly at university level where students admitted through joint admission board pay less than those admitted through the parallel or self sponsored programmes.
Social observers note with concern that our socio-economic systems seems to reward the advantaged leaving the disadvantaged to fend for themselves. It seems, to those who have, more will be added. For example, we all know that an average student will excel in any exam, if the environment is enriched at home and school. But enriching this environment calls for money, which most parents do not have. In the long run, the focus on those already advantaged lead to widening of wealth and privileges gaps in the society, which is often, a recipe for social disharmony, and impunity.
Should we just relax when majority of Kenyans, the holloi polloi are excluded from the conveyor belt that leads them to good jobs, privileges and generally a higher quality of life? What can we do to bridge the gaps in education achievements between public and private schools? First, it is strange that we should be worrying about this issue when most of our current policy makers and leaders benefited from an egalitarian system of education paying no fees or very subsidised fees plus scholarships right from primary school to university. It seems, however, that once we taste the "good life" resulting from good education, majority of us think of how they can exclude others. Elites worldwide try to ring fence and perpetuate their privileges. This ring fencing often denies society new talents and new thinking, key ingredients in innovation and economic growth.
In the short run, the Government can give students from poor families vouchers to attend private schools. I see no reason why the money given to free primary schools cannot be given to pupils then they decide where to use it; in public or private schools. Private schools’ better performance results from better management, not more resources. There might not be much difference in resources needed at primary level between public and private schools, which are more efficiency oriented.
Curiously, teachers in private schools are paid worse than in public schools! Teachers in private schools know their job security hinges on performance.
I am yet to see a teacher sacked in public school because of poor performance. We need to increase accountability in public schools. Will devolving education to counties make a difference? I fear it may not; localisation is not good for education.
Currently most teachers in primary schools come from their locality creating management problems; it is difficult to deal with neighbours and relatives when they do not perform. Private schools source teachers from everywhere, all that matters is performance. They also have more diversity; look at merit lists of top 100 from private schools. In the long run, we need to return to the roots, make the holloi polloirealise that education is still a conveyor belt to a better economic life.
Opportunities at grassrootsThe greatest paradox today is that poverty, which used to motivate pupils to work hard through school is no longer a motivator. Get the average income of parents taking their children to national schools 20 years ago and compare that with todays. We could also increase the number of national or elite schools. We suggest a national school in every county.
This will create more opportunities at grassroots. Today the numbers that go to national schools are so few that some pupils think it is not worthy trying. Very importantly, our education must deliberately focus on the majority, not just the elite. The top 100 will go to best schools. What of the last 100? The top 100 may live as long as the last 100, but each living a different life, one of privilege, the other of misery and drudgery. Yet one of the hallmarks of progressive societies is how they take care of the most disadvantaged.
KCPE is not just an exam; it is a gate-way to economic success or misery depending on your performance. KCPE and other exams are giant sieves that stream our children to different lives. But that performance is not driven by our hard work only, nature has its way, through our intellectual endowment. That calls for correction of the market system which assumes perfect competition. A good example is quota system in admissions to national schools.
KCPE (and other exams) should not publicise elitism; they should identify our talents and nurture them to maturity .
After all, children will become adults and helping them become responsible and successful should be a national duty. Could the exclusion of results from exams be what is driving MP Jeremiah Kioni to call for scrapping of KCPE, the same way Peter Illych calls for deschooling of the society? Would sitting for KCPE at Form two or Standard 10, making two years of high school compulsory make Kenya a more competitive nation? Narrowing the gap between private and public schools which also manifests itself in public and private sectors in the economy should be one of the outcomes of Vision 2030 and the new Constitution.