The Usawa Agenda has revealed that the performance of a child depends more on the school attended than any other factor.
Announcing the findings of the survey conducted on secondary schools in Kenya, Usawa Agenda Executive Director Emmanuel Manyasa said national schools are more privileged than the rest in terms of staffing and funding.
“This disproportionate resource allocation based on the category of school one attends impacts their performance in KCSE examinations more than their secondary school entry marks,” he said.
According to the report, 48 per cent of secondary schools in Kenya are day and 73 per cent are sub-county schools. Incidentally, there are no national day schools. Further, 4.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent of county and extra-county schools are day schools respectively.
From these data, the best opportunity to excel is going to national schools, and the chances diminish as you climb down the ladder to extra-county, county and sub-county schools in that order.
The survey also revealed that national schools have more than three times the number of teachers in sub-county schools, even as they too have more than double the number of teachers as per an examinable subject.
“Sub-county schools are the most vulnerable to outward teacher transitions among all the categories of schools,” the survey says.
At the same time, national schools were found to have more experienced principals and better equipped libraries and laboratories.
Calling for a level playing field, Manyasa said it is the only way to allow for fairness to prevail across all demographics.
The event was attended by officials of the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), development partners such as the World Bank, UNICEF, teacher unions and civil society organizations.
YOU MAY ALSO READ:
Medical graduates advised to get training on emerging technologies
By our reporter
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us at: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
