We are ready for national exams, Mandera County govt tells Kaimenyi
Mandera County Executive for Education Mohamud Absiye (centre) speaks to journalists on July 24,2015. He said that the county is ready for the national exams despite the shortage of teachers due to insecurity. PHOTO | MANSE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- He warned that postponing the exams would boost radicalisation and increase the number of militants.
- Mandera KESSHA deputy chairman Ibrahim Maalim said all the secondary schools in the county were ready for the examinations.
- Prof Kaimenyi had hinted that the ministry was considering delaying this year’s national examinations in areas prone to terrorist attacks and cattle rustling.
- Over 900 teachers left Mandera following terror attacks that targeted non-locals.
Players in education sector in Mandera have criticised the Ministry of Education's statement that this year’s national examinations might be postponed in North Eastern Kenya.
They were reacting to a report attributed to Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi that the ministry was considering delaying this year’s national examinations for candidates in areas where schools have been closed because of terrorist attacks and cattle rustling.
Speaking at the Mandera education offices, County Education executive Mohamud Absiye said the county was more than ready for the examinations for Standard Eight and Form Four candidates at the end of the year.
“Mandera County is ready for the national exams as we are more prepared than any other time before with more than 8,000 candidates doing revision after completing their respective academic syllabuses,” said Mr Absiye.
He warned that postponing the exams would boost radicalisation and increase the number of militants adding that there is no enough space to accommodate the double classes of more than 18,000 come next year.
“Over 900 teachers left Mandera but the county government has employed 500 Early Childhood Development Education teachers now teaching in primary schools and another 840 teachers for primary and secondary schools, most of them being form four leavers with a mean grade of C+ and above,” said Mr Absiye.
He said as a county government, they have “sorted" themselves out and accused Prof Kaimenyi of failing to send a delegation for a fact finding mission in the county to know the exact situation on the ground.
“He has not consulted us before making the statement and our message to him is that we have enough invigilators and supervisors, so let Knec bring the examinations,” he said.
Mandera Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) deputy chairman Ibrahim Maalim said all the secondary schools in the county were ready for the examinations.
WE ARE FULLY PREPARED
“We are ready for (the) exams and the minister should know we are fully prepared.
“We know teachers left us but the gap has been filled by the county government,” said Mr Maalim, the Mandera Secondary School principal.
He said the teaching fraternity had to go an extra mile in preparing the candidates after most non-locals left. He added that candidates have been doing county mock exams.
“The message the minister is sending to the children in North Eastern is very dangerous and if the exams are postponed for the good of our children it should be for the entire country and not North Eastern alone,” he said.
He said security challenges are everywhere and that denying candidates a chance to sit the exams will lead to a massive radicalisation and youth joining Al-Shabaab.
Prof Kaimenyi hinted on Wednesday after meeting the Senate Committee on Education that the government was considering the possibility of postponing the national examinations in the entire North Eastern region on grounds that the candidates are unprepared after most teachers left citing insecurity.
