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"id": 515285,
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"content": "considered to be provincial schools were changed to county schools but a lot has not changed in terms of the way they are run. Therefore, we still have a situation where a child is going to complete Standard Eight and will be categorized into a particular type of school. The reason why they will move from one school to another also depends on their performance. Those who scored 400 marks and above are likely to end up in the national schools. Due to that, as a result of selection into national schools, one will be privileged. Most of those who will go into national schools will be the ones who have attained high marks and therefore tend to be more intelligent, tend to come from very good social backgrounds, tend to cope with various situations despite the fact that those national schools admit children from all parts of the country unlike county schools which admit students from within the county. National schools end up being advantaged. National schools are given priority when it comes to selection of students. They select students first after which county schools do their selection and then sub-county schools. Unfortunately, those who end up in sub-county schools are subjected to a totally different type of education. If we look at it generally in terms of how schools are run and in terms of, for example, quality of teachers, national schools have the best teachers. Looking at classification of schools because of the new Constitution, instead of former provincial schools, we now have county schools. County schools have slightly better infrastructure compared to sub- county schools. If we look at various indicators for attainment in schools, because finally it is about what grades somebody will end up with, it depends on the type of school they will go to. If they go to a national school even if they got very low points, for example, 200 points in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), because of the environment, teachers and equipment, they will improve and perform even better. So, national schools are better off in terms of the teaching and the number of teachers. If you compare the number of teachers in national schools to those in sub-county schools, you will find that sub-county schools have very few teachers. I will give an example of Mwamzandi Secondary School in Kwale which has eight teachers only. The performance was very low. At the end of O-level, the school had a total of 37 E grades, 62 D grades, one D+; and the highest grade was a C minus (C-).Therefore, the performance depends on the type of school and the kind of teachers there are. In terms of infrastructure, national schools have laboratories, books, facilities, equipment and everything they need to have in order to progress and improve. Generally, even if a child did not have the advantage from the word go, when they get to a national school, they do well. These are the reasons why parents will fight for a national school. Sometimes, a child from a disadvantaged background is selected to join a national school but because they cannot afford fees, a child from a more advantaged background ends up taking that opportunity. Sometimes, we do not have enough scholarships to ensure that children who are less privileged join national schools. In Kenya, the transition into university and finally into the job market is dependent on grades. Therefore, if by somebody going to a national school, they are assured that they will get good enough grades that will take them into university. So, going to the right school becomes very important. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}