Revealed: Why Private schools performed dismally-Was GVT involved?
The entire public is shocked why private schools performed dismally in the recently released Kenya Certificate of primary Education (KCPE) examinations, despite having engaged in online learning during the Covid-19 school closure.
According to 2020 KCPE examinations result analysis, only five private school candidates appeared among the top 15 best nationally, a clear indicator of a shift in scores in comparison to the previous years. Archived Data from the past years show that private schools’ candidates have always dominated the top 10 and most times, public schools’ candidates miss out completely or register a handful candidates. In 2019, only four public schools produced candidates in the top 30 nationally.
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In the 2020 exams, none of the schools that produced candidates among top 30 in 2019 produced no candidate in the top 15 category. Little known schools emerged, posting candidates with top grades.
Kenya Private Schools Association (Kepsa) however argue that private schools might not have produced candidates in the top categories but they posted good mean scores. “If you look at the grades beyond top 15, we have done very well. And we can assure you that after the analysis we shall have done well,” confirmed Mutheu Kasanga, the Kepsa national chairperson. Deeper details show that most candidates in private schools did not do well.
A section of private school parents and teachers have blamed the unsatisfactory results on moderation of the examinations by the Kenya National Examination council (Knec) in a manner that disadvantaged the private school candidates.
Experts however have disputed moderation claims and maintain that most private schools lost quality teachers to other professions or to joblessness during the covid-19 pandemic. Because schools were unable to pay their salaries during the pandemic, most teachers exited private schools for other ventures.
When the pandemic eased and schools opened, some schools were unable to attract good teachers, hence affecting preparation for the learners.
What most concerned persons are questioning is why the results have only reflected private school candidates whose teachers quit but the same results have failed to reflect public school candidates who come from rural areas which lacked access to ‘online classes’ due to poor infrastructure.
They also argued that public schools failed to offer online lessons while a majority of private schools successfully did so, with learners keeping abreast with the curriculum.
The official said Standardization of the examinations was done even before the tests, with each child given equal chance to attempt all questions under the same duration.
