Governor Isaac Ruto threatens to mobilise counties to rank schools

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto on Wednesday threatened to marshal counties to undertake their own ranking of schools when the results of national examinations are released.

Mr Ruto said he would mobilise counties to announce the performance of each learning institution in the order of merit and name the leading candidates.

Speaking on Wednesday in Bomet, the governor described the ban on ranking schools as a retrogressive move that would in the long run undermine the standards of education in the country.

He said the ban removes the competition aspect from national examinations and demoralises candidates.

"It beats logic for the government to ruin the education system in the country by stopping the ranking of schools in the national examinations," said the governor.

"This is a clear indication that the government has failed in the management of the sector. I challenge it to own up and instead fully devolve the functions of the sector to counties," he noted.

'FLIMSY EXCUSES'

Mr Ruto dismissed as "flimsy excuses" the reasons the government gave for banning the ranking of schools and candidates.

"Ranking of schools was not the source of cheating in the national examinations and the government should just accept openly that it has been defeated in containing cheating in exams rather than subject candidates who have excelled in their examinations to unnecessary stigmatisation," he noted.

When Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi announced the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education results last week, he outlined 11 reasons why the ministry dropped the ranking of schools and candidates.

He argued that mean scores did not reflect a conclusive assessment of the learning process.

"Some schools are better endowed than others. You cannot compare the incomparable," he said.

Former Education assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria, who chaired a task force that recommended the ban, said ranking had to be phased out as it was about "comparing the incomparable".

VALUE ADDITION

"We need to ask ourselves questions about value addition. There can only be competition by comparing how schools added value to the students they admitted," said Dr Mwiria, who is President Uhuru Kenyatta's adviser on education.

Mr Ruto further faulted the government for its attempt to stop the registration of more day schools and petitioned it to let the counties set up as many schools as possible to enable children from disadvantaged families to access higher education.

"We are wondering where the government is getting the guts to dictate the number of schools we are supposed to build.

"That should not be the situation if we really need to improve the standards of education in our country," the governor pointed out.