Hello Nyakundi Is Cyprian,
Kindly allow me to use your media to give my opinion about KCPE results in general.
I start by condoling with the families of those who lost their kids and those who lost teachers who were either exam invigilators or exam markers. May God rest the souls of the departed in peace. May we never lose lives during exam times again.
Next I would like to congratulate all the over a million* candidates. They all did well even as the Cabinet Secretary (CS) says. It does not matter if they got 400 + or 50 marks. All did their best.
NO USUAL FUN-FAIR
This is a good move. Wise people change with times. The time used to announce these results, is better used in other ways. After all the KNEC officials were still busy supervising the ongoing KCSE exams.
THE RESULTS WERE READY IN RECORD TIME
I sincerely don’t know whether this is a good thing or not. It looks like there was too much hurrying in marking these exams bearing in mind the Compositions and Insha written by 1 million candidates were marked manually. I hope the markers were not made to work too fast unnecessarily. I believe that these teachers, being the Kenyans that we all are, would not have minded a few more days to be paid marking the exam at a reasonable speed.
EFFECTS ON THE CANDIDATES AND THEIR FAMILIES ON RELEASING THESE RESULTS THAT HURRIEDLY.
The Africans were right in saying that too much hurry in doing things is never good. The Luhya say that the fast eater burnt his teeth. Haraka haraka haina baraka.
There are times when human beings do not favor knowing the results of certain undertaking too soon. They fear the consequences of the results. The KCPE candidates have been away from school for just 17 days. They would have wanted to have a few more days not thinking about school and exams. School has never been a friend of many and given choice many would stay away.
RESULTS A FEW DAYS AFTER THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES
This is the way it used to be and the parents still prepared to take their kids to Form 1 in early February. Why hurry to open the schools in January, have unmanageable long school holidays only to close in October?
CERTAIN KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES ON THE RECEIVING END.
Yes, early release of the results will make frustrated parents take out their frustrations on the candidates they think did not perform well enough. This could spoil the Christmas festivities for everybody in the family.
A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE AND BUSINESS ADVERTISEMENT?
Is parading the best performers a form of child abuse? For whose benefit is this done? The producers of the best performers. Mostly from Private schools. They are the factories that produce HIGH SCORES and want rawer MATERIALS! From new admissions.
No one parades that child who scores 250 marks. The child comes from a rural school somewhere where he walks 5kilometers to school to learn under a leafless tree seated on some irregularly shaped rock and eats one meal at school. Nobody, from the media house will visit such schools to see a 250 marks pupil carried shoulder high by his shoeless parents and school heads who wear faded and creased suits!
Parading the high scorers is a form of subtle child abuse. There are pupils who are naturally modest and do not want such limelight that could subject them to future RIDICULE and FRUSTRATIONS if they don’t maintain such scores in high school.
THE GROUND IS NEVER LEVEL FOR ALL PUPILS.
Focusing on only the high scorers from private academies does not really add up. Why put a horse and a bull in the same race and praise the horse for doing better than the bull?
ARE THE HIGH SCORES MAINTAINED AT SECONDARY SCHOOL?
I am always amused when a pupil who scores high confidently says “I want to work hard and be a NEUROSURGEON in future.” If such promises were fulfilled Kenya would be exporting NEUROSURGEONS to other African countries. I doubt these young souls know what it takes to train and specialize in NEUROSURGERY. One has to maintain such high scores in order to gain admittance to a University like the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine famous for training competent medical doctors. A few years ago for one to join the prestigious institution, one has to have scored plain A grades in most of the subjects especially MATHS, PHYSICS, ENGLISH, CHEMISTRY, and BIOLOGY.
How many of today’s candidates will maintain their high scores in secondary school? None of these pupils will maintain those flowery KCPE scores of 80s and 90s! KCPE and KCSE are two different exams. The highest score any student can get at KCSE is an A plain of 75 marks. For instance, all those scoring up to 99% in English will score Bs of between 55 and 64 marks at KCSE.
HIGH SCORES ARE NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE A NEUROSURGEON.
Twenty-Five (25) or so years ago, everybody thought a doctor was assured of a state job and was very well paid. To wear a stethoscope and a milk-white overcoat meant wealth, big new cars, own houses etc. Today a mitumba merchant who makes 5k a day in selling mitumba shoes earns far above a doctor who is lucky to get a job.
A medical career is a calling that cannot be well done by anybody who is after pay only.
Now we know that all those high scorers who wish to pursue competitive careers may not do so eventually. But we wish them all the best. They must not rest on their laurels. They should continue working hard from the word go.
A NEW BEGINNING FOR ALL.
All those unsung heroes from our public day primary schools have as good chances to excel in the KCSE 2023 as those who have scored high. They should start working hard when they join Form 1, in 2020.
Sosh.
*1,088,986 pupils sat for KCPE
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