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{
    "id": 514031,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/514031/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 22,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kobado",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2964,
        "legal_name": "John Owuor Onyango Kobado",
        "slug": "john-owuor-onyango-kobado"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to oppose this Motion. I want to begin by acknowledging the fact that, indeed, ranking encourages competition, inculcates a sense of competition and it can be used as a tool for benchmarking. That notwithstanding, in overall terms, ranking does more harm than good. Competition needs to be fair. If you have to talk about fair competition, then we must set very clear parameters upon which we need to compete. There is need to look at the infrastructure. There is need to look at teacher to student ratio. There is need to look at the learning resources. So to speak, there is need to standardize certain things before we can allow schools to compete. For ranking to meet those thresholds, it should be part of a comprehensive educational reform but you do not single it out as ranking and be able to make any impact in terms of improving the standards and quality of education in schools. Therefore, there is need to have a rather holistic approach to this process so that as we rank, we look at the curriculum and the extra-curriculum activities rather than focusing on the syllabus as it is done currently. There is need to consider other factors which would influence the outcome of an education process. We need to also consider things like life skills, talents of the students and the syllabus itself so that we have a comprehensive approach to the ranking process. Ranking, hon. Speaker, encourages a lot of other things which have not gone well with our education system in this country. It encourages malpractises in schools. Indeed, cheating is motivated by ranking and that is why we have a lot of cheating in schools. There is need, therefore, to stop this cut-throat competition that we are currently seeing in schools by dropping ranking but bringing it back in a more comprehensive approach so that as you rank, you look at the total individual or an all- round person to come up with something that is proper. Last year alone, in the results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) of 2014, we had close to 3,000 students whose results were cancelled because they were caught cheating and this was motivated by ranking. So, there is need to look at this thing a bit more comprehensively. It is possible to realise zero tolerance on cheating if cheating is looked at from the source. We can stop cheating from the source because many students are victims of circumstances."
}