Class eight pupils who can’t do Standard Two maths

One out of every 10 Standard Eight pupils cannot solve a Standard Two mathematical problem, a new study says.

And 30 per cent of Standard Fives would fail the same problem while only 20 per cent of Standard Two pupils would be able to solve it, says the annual learning assessment report for Kenya titled Uwezo whose results were released on Thursday.

A third of the children in Standard Two can only recognise numbers, but would be at sea if asked to perform basic calculations on the same figures.

But it is not all gloom because the pupils can handle the numbers much better if they are asked to apply them in real life and are given real examples to work with rather than abstract figures.

“This finding may be pointing to the need to relate mathematics concepts to real life situations, and reducing the abstract nature of mathematics depicted in the curriculum, in favour of the application,” says the report.

The study also found that for every 1,000 pupils in Standard Eight, 50 cannot read a story intended for Standard Two.

And one out of four children in Standard Five cannot make sense of the same story if they were asked to read it.

Only a third of children in Standard Two can read a paragraph set for their level, painting a grim picture of the situation in Kenyan schools in spite of the progress made in enrolment under the Free Primary Education Programme.

Numeracy and literacy

It suggests that the increase in enrolment levels due to FPE does not translate into an increase in knowledge levels or the quality of education.

The comprehensive report was launched at the Kenya Institute of Education and its authors say its contents should help guide plans for the education sector.

“Our children are not able to do what they should be doing at their level in terms of numeracy and literacy. The situation is grim,” said Mr Daniel Wesonga, a lecturer at Kenyatta University, who took part in the research.

The bulk of pupils interviewed for the research were in Standard Two, the age at which researchers say a child begins to understand and combine figures as well as use words to form sentences.

“Fluency in reading is developed at Standard Two as per our reading norms and the syllabus in use,” said Mr Wesonga.

He advises parents with children in that class to watch how they handle their homework, to detect any problems and solve them with their teachers before it is too late.

The report says many children in primary school, including those in upper classes, cannot read, write or perform numerical calculations they should ideally be doing at their level.

“These low performances may be affecting performances at higher levels, and inability to read, which should be acquired in early primary grades, could be a problem to even students in secondary schools,” says the report.

The researchers say the problem can be solved by both parents and teachers working more closely with children to establish their weaknesses and solve them early enough.

This could be hampered by the perennial shortage of teachers in Kenyan schools, which the study puts at four teachers short at any given time.

The assessment covered 2,030 public primary schools, about 10 per cent of the national total, with researchers interviewing pupils from 40,386 households from 70 districts.