By OUMA WANZALA

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Newlight Junior Academy pupils celebrate after the release of KCPE results on January 28, 2013. The school emerged first nationwide. The school has been named among private primary schools involved in unethical practices of registering multiple examination centres for “weak” and “bright” candidates. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

SUMMARY:

• Topping the list of such schools is Makini Academy, Ngong Road, Nairobi, which registered a modest 21 candidates and managed get a mean score of 419.
• Newlight Academy, Komarock, Nairobi, had 21 candidates with a mean score of 410.
• Gilgil Hills Academy had 23 candidates with a mean score of 405, while Lizar Junior School in Naivasha with 70 candidates had a mean score of 404.

A list of private primary schools involved in unethical practices of registering multiple examination centres for “weak” and “bright” candidates can now be revealed.

Some of the schools managed to get a mean score of more than 400 out 500 marks which means that all their candidates will secure slots in top national schools.

The pass mark for KCPE examination is set at 250 out of 500 marks.

Topping the list of such schools is Makini Academy, Ngong Road, Nairobi, which registered a modest 21 candidates and managed get a mean score of 419. The school has satellite centres scattered over Nairobi, which means the real number of candidates could be more than 100.

It was followed by Newlight Academy, Komarock, Nairobi, which had 21 candidates with a mean score of 410.

Gilgil Hills Academy had 23 candidates with a mean score of 405, while Lizar Junior School in Naivasha with 70 candidates had a mean score of 404.

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Marell Academy in Bungoma County had a mean score of 402 with an entry of 22 candidates.

Chelsa Academy in Bomet County had 28 candidates and got a mean score of 402 while Fred’s Academy in Imenti North registered 44 candidates and got a mean score of 400.
Al-Ansaaru nursery and Primary School in Kamukunji, Nairobi County, registered 24 candidates and got a mean score 400; Precious Hope in Kisii South with 22 candidates got 399 and Highrise Academy in Bureti with 16 candidates got a mean of 398.

This means that candidates who sat the examination in private schools are three times more likely to join national schools than their counterparts in public schools, with more than 26,000 slots available in national schools.

Private schools presented less than 15 per cent of the 942,021 candidates who sat for the examination.

UNETHICAL PRACTICE

The Kenya Private Schools Association admitted that more than 20 schools are involved in this unethical practice and has asked the government to make good its threat and deregister them.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i while releasing Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results on Thursday said the ministry is aware of the practice and promised action.
“This is a ridiculous examination malpractice since the proprietors of these schools are clearly using innocent pupils in an unscrupulous marketing exercise of their businesses,” said Dr Matiang’i.

Private Schools Association chief executive Peter Ndoro accused the Ministry of Education of failing to act, saying since 2012, his association has been informing it about these schools.

“We hope the ministry will take action this time. Most of these satellite centres register less than 25 candidates,” said Mr Ndoro.

He added that the association will work with the ministry to identify the centres.

Schools separating weak and bright pupils named

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Kenya National Examinations Council chairman Prof George Magoha also hit out at the schools, saying they are not centres of excellence as they purport.
The CS directed Knec to ensure the directive to deregister such institutions is implemented.

The CS also announced that private candidates would from next year write the tests at public institutions.

He said cases of double registration had been recorded and that is why some candidates did not sit the examination for fear of being arrested.
A total 10,365 candidates did not sit their 2016 KCPE tests.

At the same time, the number of candidates who scored less than 100 marks this year doubled from last year’s.

TEACHERS ARE ABSENT

A total of 6,747 candidates scored less than 100 marks out of possible 500 as compared to last year’s 3,061 meaning that they obtained an average of 25 per cent in each paper.

In 2014, those who scored below 100 marks were 6,017. In total more 226,000 candidates scored below 200 marks.

The results confirms experts’ concerns that children in school are not learning as most of the time teachers are absent and even those who are present do not teach.

A total of 5,143 scored 400 marks and above compared to last year’s 7,560.

Some 207,141 pupils scored 301-399 marks, a total of 501,552 had 201-300 marks while 221,438 scored 101-200 marks and 6,747 had 100 and below.

Girls performed better than boys in languages - English, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language - while boys performed better than girls in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies and Religion.

This year, 1,950 candidates with special needs sat the examination with the highest candidate scoring 421 marks.

Bungoma County presented 2,139 underage candidates, which was the highest across the 47 counties.

This year there were 17,069 underage candidates as compared to last year’s 4,955.

Candidates with more than 400 marks dropped by 31 per cent with Dr Matiang’i acknowledging that this year’s performance was slightly lower than that of last year.

Teachers Service Commission chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said they would study a report on performance of candidates to help them improve.