Schools that performed poorly in KCPE to receive Sh500,000

Schools that performed dismally in the past three consecutive primary leaving examination will receive a Sh500,000 boost to help them improve their quality.

The selected schools scored below the national mean grade of 243 in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

Each of the 4,000 schools will receive $5,000 under the project that is being implemented by the Ministry of Education.

This is through the Primary Education Development Programme (Priede), sponsored by Global Partnership for Education and supervised by the World Bank.

RESOURCES

The director of projects at the ministry, Mr Elyas Abdi, said Sh300,000 had been disbursed with the balance to be paid next year.

The funds will help the schools to improve in two subject areas of their choice, as well as infrastructure.

“The programme basically seeks to improve the schools that have not been performing well, which has largely been blamed on inadequacy of resources,” said Mr Abdi.

The senior officer spoke on Thursday at Moi Nyeri Complex during the training of 81 primary school headteachers from Nyeri County selected under the project. The training is going on countrywide.

The training is meant to equip the headteachers with skills to improve their management, with four key areas given special attention: KCPE analysis, school audit systems, provision of funds and appraisal of teachers by the Teachers Service Commission.

Mr Abdi said the exam analysis will help the schools to identify their weaknesses and initiate measures to improve curriculum delivery.

He said the schools have been put on an aggressive plan that provides them with an integrated set of interventions.

The school heads were each given a tablet loaded with management software and trained in basic usage of the gadgets to provide relevant data under the school improvement programme.