“Parents storm school, close offices over poor performance in KCPE exam”

Posted: January 7th, 2014 | Author: Michael Goldstein | | No Comments »

This article from the Kenyan Standard:

Angry parents Embu County removed their children from classrooms, citing poor performance in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education ( KCPE) examination.

Over 100 parents stormed Nduni Primary School in Mbeere South sub-county yesterday morning and demanded the transfer of the head teacher and two teachers. They also closed all offices, saying they were against the current administration over the drop in the school’s mean score.

They claimed two teachers often reported to duty drunk, which had contributed to the deteriorating performance.

The head teacher, Davis Kyaya, said the 2013 KCPE mean score had dropped to 163.3 as the class was weak. “I joined the school two years ago and found the class was not performing well. Some pupils were already adults. We decided to have all of them move on to Standard Eight so that they could finish primary school,” he said.

He added that the highest pupil scored 238 marks while two had less than 100 marks, with the last one scoring 60marks.

Teachers Service Commission County Director Lilian Mwangi last week cautioned parents against attacking head teachers of primary schools that do not perform well in KCPE.

“It is wrong for parents to attack teachers because performance depends on many factors, which could also arise from the parents themselves,” she said.

The average score is 250/500 (forced curve, similar to each SAT being 500/800). So a school at 163 is below 5th percentile.