Economy

Puzzle as more pupils drop out after Class Six - VIDEO

More than a fifth of pupils expected to sit last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination dropped out, a government report has revealed.

The 2014 Basic Education Statistical booklet shows that primary school completion stood at 79.3 per cent compared to 86.5 per cent in 2009 — a pointer that the dropout rates are on the rise.

This looks set to undermine the universal primary education goal, which was expected to be attained with the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in 2003.

The pupils begin to drop out from Class Six in what remains a puzzle to the government. 

“There is a drastic drop of pupils from Standard Six going upwards. Where do these children go? Do they get married or is it child labour?” posed Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi at a media briefing Tuesday.

Standard Six retention, according to the report, improved from 95 per cent in 2009 to 100.2 per cent last year. “Enrolment at Class Eight has grown…the growth is lower than the annual growth of the population that is theoretically supposed to be in Class Eight,” the report notes.
The government has spent billions of shillings under the FPE since 2003.

The low transition from primary to secondary school is slowing down government efforts to improve the wellbeing of Kenyans, the UN warns.

The UN puts the average number of years of schooling in Kenya at 6.3 years last year compared to seven in 2010 and includes pupils who fail to sit the Class Eight national examinations and those not enrolled in secondary schools.

READ: World Bank warns unskilled graduates hurting Vision 2030

Official data shows that 667,151 learners were enrolled in secondary schools last year compared to 839,759 that sat the KCPE in 2013.

Kenya has been praised for introducing free education, in line with one of the Millennium Development Goals, but the country has been battling against poor education standards.

Public school enrolment almost tripled without the facilities and resources expanding as fast since the introduction of FPE.

The number of primary school pupils has risen from five million in 2007 to more than nine million last year, stretching resources like teachers, learning materials and classrooms.

The government reports revealed there is no shortage of teachers in the three levels of basic education — early childhood, primary and secondary schools.

The report reckons that the ratio of public school teachers to enrolled learners is within an acceptable range considering the sector norm.

The pupil-teacher ratio for public schools stood at 41.5 which compares well with the international norm of 40. However, teachers’ unions insist there is a shortfall of 80,000 teachers.

“There are serious cross-county disparities ranging from very high pupil teacher ratio of 101.3 in Turkana County to a low of 25.4 in Baringo,” adds the report.

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