Recently released KCSE results for last year continue to depict the sorry state of the education sector in NEP with huge disparities between the province and the rest of the country. Furthermore, girls continue to lag behind boys at a disproportionate level, with this year registering only five girls in the top 100 positions compared to KCPE where there were at least 34 girls.
While there are socio-economic reasons for the gross disparities between NEP & the rest of Kenya, its not fair to blame everything on these causalities. It will not be unjust if one said that students who choose to study Arabic, IRE & History should be expected to score an A in those subjects. That will boost their average by about 36 points. One of the reasons for us lagging behind other places is due to the current cadre of students who are nothing more than a bunch of disengaged, self entitled brats. Heavy drug abuse, disregard for teachers and a culture of illiteracy also play a role. This serves to alienate the very few students who are willing to work hard for their good grades and the even fewer teachers who are sincerely trying to impart knowledge.
I think its way beyond time for some soul searching & self flagellation. Time and again, students from NEP who go to national schools and national Universities perform at par with their classmates despite their background. That said, I would recommend to any parent or adult who has a child/younger brother/sister in school to read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom," a book that vividly describes the successes of a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on education and sees it as the only ticket to a better future. It's either that or we swap our schools for Madrassa's because they are certainly not generating any net value.
I was willing to cut the primary kids some slack because they performed relatively better than their secondary counterparts but all in all, this is a disgrace.
The top 10 candidates in the province were:
Abdow Mohamed Osman (79.2) Garissa High
ABDIRAHMAN IBRAHIM ALI (78.9) Mandera Sec
AHMED DEKOW MOHAMED ( Young Muslim
HASSAN MOHAMED FARAH Mandera Sec
SULEIMAN BASHIR SALAH Young Muslim
MOHAMED ALI DAGOL Mandera Sec
MOHAMUD MUHUMED Garissa High
ADEN ABDI DIIS Young Muslim
MOHAMUD IBRAHIM Mandera Sec
ABDISHAKUR ABDISALAN Mandera Sec
The best girl in the province was Raha Abdi Salah of NEP Girls ranked overall at position 22.
Mandera Sec School took 35% of all positions in the top 100 province wide.
Garissa High & Mandera Sec made up about 59% of all students in the top 100.
As soon as I get the time, I'll post the full rankings.
UPDATE
KCSE 2010
