NEP's KCSE 2010 Results

  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

KCPE and The Poverty Trap

This week the results of last year's KCPE exams were released and as expected private schools dominated  top positions all over Kenya.
 Its such a shame that in 2010 a child's destiny is sealed by an examination that only serves to reproduce the existing class system in Kenya. The fact that Ministry of Education is bent on scuttling education reform when its not busy stealing FPE money is an indication that this nation is yet to realise the importance of education as a social class delineation busting force.
  Candidates come from diverse economic and social backgrounds. This fact is completely ignored in form one selection. The lack of quota system gives an edge to the upper echelons of society that can afford to send their kids to private schools which are equipped with proper facilities and personnel. It completely ignores vital factoids such as the performance of a student within the locality in which he was schooled and across his 8 years of primary education  when deciding his fate.
  Its pertinent that we change this archaic convoluted method . The paradox of the new Kenyan meritocracy is that its so far tilted in the favour of those that have resources and away from the poor. NEP and other places need to scrutinize this bias. Its despicable that private schools have a tight grip on top positions in the country and end up producing  future leaders, lawyers and purveyors of justice. We are only helping create a new aristocracy that is so out of touch with the pedestrian reality of the average person's life.