Private schools lose lustre in new Form One selection rules

Investors in the education sector were on Wednesday left reeling by a populist move that will see qualified pupils from private primary schools denied entry into the 18 national schools, defining a class struggle that has been simmering in Kenya’s competitive education sector for two decades.

Education minister Sam Ongeri announced new guidelines that will limit the available places in public secondary schools to the ratio of candidates in a stream — either private or public — to the overall number of candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in the previous year.

“The government’s policy is aimed at enhancing access, equity and quality at all levels of education,” said Prof Ongeri.

The Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) said it would call a meeting of its national committee to discuss the way forward.

“Kenyan children and their parents should not be punished for making a choice to go to private schools, ” chairman John Mwai said in a statement.

The association called on the government to rescind the decision, saying it would move to the constitutional court to interpret the rights of children in regard to education provision, transition and other opportunities.

The government’s move is meant to address concerns that students from public primary schools, who are presumed to be disadvantaged in terms of education facilities and social background, were losing out in national school admissions to the better endowed private institutions, commonly referred to as academies.

“These measures will address the inequality that has left students whose parents cannot pay for private education miss out on the chances at the national level,” said Dr Herman Manyora, a lecturer at the university of Nairobi.

The concerns had seen Ndaragua MP Jeremiah Kioni seek to have KCPE banned in favour of continuous assessment tests, arguing that the education favoured children from rich families.

The previous system of form one selections only required that at least one student from each of the country’s over 210 districts be admitted to a national school regardless of whether they are from private academies or public schools.

This was ensured through cut off marks and district quotas that gave pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds admission to public secondary schools at lower grades than their counterparts in private schools.

Standardisation of examination results also tended to dock marks off top performers in private primary schools.

The new district quota system is in line with the new Constitution that requires that every district must take a student from its public schools to the national schools, irrespective of performance, threatening to eliminate the clout had in getting slots in the best performing secondary schools.

Out of the top 100 students in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination, 87 were from private academies.

“We’re totally against the criteria because it is discriminating students who performed well (in private schools),” said the Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) chief executive Peter Ndoro.

The new criteria will see pupils from private schools take up 1,224 places or 27 per cent of the 4,517 vacancies available in national schools.

The ratio could fall substantially next year when prior selection is done for three schools that cater for armed forces personnel, Starehe Boys and Starehe Girls.

Without the five schools, only 651 students from private schools would have made it to national schools.

In the 2010 KCPE registration, private schools had 107, 514 entries or 14.4 per cent of the 746,107 candidates who sat the examination.

The plight of candidates from private schools in national school selection will cascade down to the provincial and district public schools, compounded by lack of adequate private sector involvement in secondary school development.

Private secondary schools will take 56,543 students in Form One slightly more than half of their KCPE candidates last year.

The implications of the most controversial admission shift in the sector since President Daniel arap Moi lowered the cut-off for admission to public universities in 1988 are dire to investors in private schools.

Those with secondary school facilities, especially boarding, have just received a windfall cheque that will draw new competitors.

In the meantime, the fees in these institutions are likely to rise as parents whose children are denied opportunities in the public schools seek alternatives, including in secondary schools offering the British system of education.

Fees in private secondary boarding schools are now in the range of between Sh90,000 and Sh100,000 on entry and between Sh55,000 and Sh70,000 per term.

“Because of high population growth and the core belief that education is a path to upward mobility, investment in this sector will remain lucrative,” said X N Iraki, the MBA programme coordinator at the University of Nairobi’s School of Business.

Investments in secondary schools, he said, had lagged behind because of lack of managerial expertise.

In the primary school segment, the risk of years of investments going down the grain is now higher than when the free primary education was introduced in 2003.

The guidelines effectively reduce the demand for quality education which parents strive to finance in the hope that their children will get to better public secondary schools.

Without that expectation, parents may prefer to take their children through the cheaper public primary schools save in the knowledge that they stand a better chance to get a Form One place in national schools even with lower grades.

“It will discourage investments in private schools since candidates will no longer be assured of joining the national schools even with good grades,” said Dr Manyora.

Makini Schools chief executive and founder Mary Okello said it was still too early to speculate on what the likely impact of the new form one selection criteria would be.

A sudden shift in this direction would increase the strain on government in financing free primary education.

“It is unfair for the government to introduce such a policy at this time especially after it has failed to have teachers sign performance contracts. The examination is the same for all the students, how can one then be faulted for having better teachers and facilities,” said Mr Ndoro.

Private primary schools have an advantage over their public school counterparts due to the smaller classes of average 25 students per class as compared to some public schools that have a capacity of 100 pupils per class.

“The ministry has faced some challenges in the achievement of set goals including overcrowded classes, shortage of teachers, inadequate infrastructure and diminished parental support as a result of the perception that education as free,” said Prof Ongeri.

Insufficient investment in education, Dr Iraki said, would render Kenyan youth and by extension the country, uncompetitive due to the mobility of labour in the global market.

The provincial and district selection process — scheduled to start on January 14 is expected to take 478,732 students based on quotas, merit and choice.

Joining national schools means higher chances of passing the KCSE examination and later joining the public universities and this has seen some schools drill students for examinations.

Weaker students have been forced to repeat or register in institutions where reputation risks for poor performance are less.

“This will finally put to a stop the culture of cramming in private schools and encourage quality,” said Musau Ndunda, Secretary General of Kenya National Association of Parents.

But education experts say that the government still has a long way to go to ensure quality and access to education is enhanced.

A recent research revealed that at least six million Kenyans do not have access to education services despite the billions of shillings being spent to boost literacy levels, posing a fresh challenge to the quest for high-level economic growth.

KPSA represents 9,000 primary, 4,000 secondary and 7,000 pre-schools.

In last year’s KCPE exam, there were 2,748 private centres compared to 18, 758 public centres.