Kisii County residents have elicited mixed reactions over the new Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) grading system proposed by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).
Boda boda riders in Kisii town said that the suggestion is a plausible one since it has relaxed the burden of students taking many science subjects whose grades denied some of them entry into University.
“If the recommendation is accepted, I will go back to school to try my luck and go to University,” said John Mose, one of the riders.
He said that the system will allow more students to join the University and create employment opportunities which will in turn boost the economy of the country.
However, resident Veronicah Nyaboke argued that the system will to many students flooding the University, a situation which will lead to a spike in criminal activities.
Kisii Education Board Chairman Professor Henry Onderi criticized the system saying that it was seeking to revert to the old 7-4-2-3-3 system.
“This is a duplication of the old system that defies the objectives of Vision 2030,” he said.
He added that the system will foster laziness among students, creating a perception that sciences are hard to pass and become inclined to languages and arts subjects.
Prof. Onderi said that since we are living in a technology-based world, the system will risk the future workforce of the country.
He thus urged the task force to subject the recommendations to public participation in order to unpack, criticize and amend them before their adoption is considered.
According to Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu, only two mandatory subjects – Mathematics and one Language – will be required in computing the Mean Grade.
However, the National Assembly stopped the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) Report on September 27.
This is after Emuhaya Member of Parliament (MP) Omboko Milemba rose on a Point of Order to seek the Speaker’s direction regarding the PWPER recommendations, stating that the task force – led by Prof. Raphael Munavu – made several recommendations to reform the education sector consequently establishing great conflict not only within the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) but also to other players in the sector.
By Enock Okong’o
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