Principals of secondary schools in Kakamega North Sub-county have come out strongly to defend their purported poor 2023 KCSE results, saying they are victims of truth and honesty as they have not bowed to the temptation to cheat unlike schools in other regions.
In a stakeholders’ workshop attended by school principals, Boards of Management (BoM), Parents Associations (PA), education officers, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) officials, local administrators and the political class, it emerged that the sub-county has been registering genuine results, and hence principals should not be victimized for poor results at all.
Addressing the congregation, Chief Principal of Malava Boys John Simiyu Wakwabubi expressed his dismay over the criticisms emanating from some quarters that the sub-county was not improving in performance.
The principal candidly hailed his colleagues for embracing integrity and sticking to the policies of the Ministry of Education (MoE).
He accused some principals of falling prey to cheating and warned that the end result in the future will boomerang on them heavily.
“It is unfortunate that some external forces have been sent on the prowl to traverse schools and convince principals to cave in but we as Kakamega North have remained firm against malpractice in exams,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by the Kakamega County Assembly Minority Leader David Ndakwa (West Kabras), who challenged critics to take into consideration certain issues such as population.
“How can you compare or rank the performance of Kakamega North that had 5,359 candidates with Mumias East that had 2,600 candidates? You cannot accuse the former of having a lesser mean score considering it has many schools,” he said.
Ndakwa, who is also a publisher of school books, assured the principals that they had done their best and should not feel demoralized.
He advised other stakeholders to desist from politicizing school management as it affects its smooth running and called on the quality assurance office to step up its efforts to inspect schools to keep abreast with its running.
Kakamega North KESSHA chairperson and principal Malava Girls Rose Abuko observed that despite all the odds, they managed to receive all the candidates’ results.
She also appreciated the principals for their efforts to produce genuine results, calling for early monitoring of every learner’s performance from the foundational stages so that they can know their capabilities.
“Let us all partner and help these learners achieve their respective goals and this is our objective,” she remarked.
The principal further called on the Interior and Education ministries and TSC to step in and protect them against attacks from parents and the public over poor results.
The PAs led by Dickson Wesonga Mutsuma hit out at political leaders using education as their popularity tool as they mislead parents on payment of fees.
“Let our politicians campaign but tell our parents the truth that the government is only paying for capitation while the parents have to remit other fees,” Mutsuma said.
By Andanje Wakhungu
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