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{
    "id": 516930,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/516930/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 436,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Macharia",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2367,
        "legal_name": "Jacob Waweru Macharia",
        "slug": "jacob-waweru-macharia"
    },
    "content": "I will begin with a tale of two schools in my constituency. We have a school called Elburgon Secondary School that scored a mean of B+ (plus) and Michinda High School that scored a mean of C (plain), but someone peddled lies on the streets that they had a D- (minus). Both schools got out into the streets, one to celebrate and the other one to protest. Ranking in this country, speaking from experience, is the only thing that has made it possible for us; the common mwananchi, to see quality in schools and see what is happening in the schools that we take our children to. I have had the experience of working nearly in all the schools in this country. I know that we have some schools which are very far away where it is impossible for quality assurance officials to get. The only thing that tells us what is happening there is how they perform. If they get a mean score of a D and no student goes to university, we understand what is going on there. This information helps the parents in this school to decide what to do. The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology addressed the nation and stated why he is not ranking schools. He talked of the negative side of ranking. He never talked about the positive side of ranking. I was in that meeting and the reasons that he gave are basically excuses and reasons to shield failure by Education Officers in his office and the State Department of Education. When he tells the nation that as a result of ranking students are forced to repeat, we know that there is a policy about repeating. It is only that it has not been implemented. Therefore, it is not ranking that has caused students to be made to repeat, but inefficiency of the State Department of Education. He went ahead and gave us 11 reasons. One of them was that as a result of ranking, schools are not interested in the process, but are only interested in the product. The 8-4-4 System of Education that we have at hand today is examination-based. The syllabi that we have today take time to complete. Working hard and long hours of students being in class is a practical objective of the syllabus under the 8-4-4 System of Education. Therefore, both the process and the product must count in this case. The Cabinet Secretary went ahead and talked about politics saying that we are politicising results and ranking. That brought memories of the dark days of the one party rule when we all thought that some districts could not have made it unless they were helped politically. The intentions of the Cabinet Secretary are good and clear, but Kenya is not ready to have a system of education that has no ranking. Some countries in Europe do not rank because the teacher is motivated to teach. The teacher has no reason to skive classes to go and run matatu business. He has no reason to go to the shamba to try and make additional income. As I support this Motion as amended, it is important that all the stakeholders are brought together to see what kind of ranking should be done."
}