When KCPE started being marked out of 500, the top student had 482 marks. Ever since, the top score has been going down consistently , last year it was 434, why?

The exams are getting tougher? pupils are not as bright as before? i don't think so.

Adverse Effects of Free Primary School Education

It has come to the attention of KNEC and the govt as a whole, that the quality of primary school education has become pathetic, but the authorities will not let this situation be apparent to everyone.

so, they results are 'normalized', to conceal the apparent scenarios.

I did a quick check on some few private and public schools in my area and found out that, private schools are not getting as good results as they used to while public schools in the same area were 'catching up'...

Secondly, the new quota system is meant to patch up to huge gap that was expected with the introduction of FPE

I agree there are adverse effects of FPE. And I don't think these effects were unexpeted. With a high value of student to teacher ratio it cannot get better.

However, FPE should be encouraged because it is good for Kenya, being one of the MDGs. What needs to be done is dvelopment of more facilities in public schools.

One other effect has to do with the quality of education. With one teacher for 50-60 students, there are inherent challenges when it comes to dealing with laggards - the recourse i see happening is to put everyone in the slow lane to allow the others to catch up. This has necessitated a protracted duration for the full curriculum to be addressed...including arriving as early as 7am and leaving as late as 5pm + lessons on Saturday.

In a big way parents have absconded certain duties to help teachers - they give their kids much freedom such that it also affects their learning abilities - thus the laggards who drag the rest behind. I have personally observed one such parent at a school parents meeting - while the head teacher was talking about developments relating to the school, the father was playing a game on his phone with his son! Examples are endless - access to uncontrolled media, Sunday Family Days at CocoBeach and such places, etc etc.

Another aspect (and this relates to FPE directly and quack publishers eager to tap into funds for text books). I will name one publisher without any fear - Highflyer Publishers - they churn out an extremely poor quality revision book, riddled with so many erros, for Standard 1 to 8 - they mint millions every year - I suppose the production cost for each book is abt 80 bob and the book costs something like 300 bob. There are also other nondescript publishers who may have put words in the ears of officials at the KIE whose mandate I understand, is to recommend books for the syllabus.

So in essence, inherent in the system is failure and its compounded by some parents and some publishers.

Under the old system, I only started going for afternoon classes in Standard 4 - and we'd leave by 3.20pm - two 40 minute lessons after lunch. That stayed the same until Standard 7 - no Saturday classes, no "tuition" fees.

How can we change this without causing an upheaval and disrupting those unfortunate to be in the system?

@Djinn good to see someone my age here. I remember my fees in primo were like free. Some 30 bob a term.

The problem is teachers and more so parents. Saw a parent once want to tear up a teacher who was punishing their kid for being 2 hours late. "No", the parent said, "you can't punish my kid, kweli wewe ni nani?" After the idiot kid fails, you blame 8-4-4 and Kibaki.

NOOO Apana...Nothing to do with free education. Everything to do with YOU the PARENT.

The effects of NO primary education are "warriors" being created in 1992 and 2007.

kenya private schools alliance is crying foul over how the form 1 selections were made. they are even stating that they have been discriminated.
any parent who can afford to educate a child in a private school would find it easy in a private secondary school. please let us leave the few public sec schools for our poor kenyans.