Schools far from cities record lowest pass rate - study

Schools farthest from the capital city have a low pass rate, a literacy and numeracy study has revealed.

A report, “Are our Children Learning, Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa, 2014” released on Thursday by Uwezo Kenya, an education research firm, showed that many of the schools ranked bottom in the Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were the ones farthest from their capital cities.

For instance in Kenya, the districts ranked top 10 are the ones closest to Nairobi, half of them being in central part of Kenya.

In Tanzania, the top district, Mbeya Urban, though far from capital, is a developed urban centre.

In the bottom 20 districts in Kenya, all are in northern part of Kenya including Wajir and Mandera counties.

Uwezo Kenya reports that good performance in schools near the capital cities is as a result of teachers opting to work in towns close to the city.

“It indicates that there are some systematic shared factors in these areas that influence poor learner achievement, such as issues with recruitment of and retention of high quality teachers and government monitoring of outcomes,” reads a report launched in Kenya by Dr John Mugo, the director of data and voice, Twaweza, Uwezo Kenya.

ATTENTION TO BOYS

Dr Mugo said according to the report, gender parity has almost been bridged and the shift in attention should actually move to boys.

The survey revealed that apart from Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties, the other counties have increased enrolment of girls to schools and are actually catching up with boys.

“We should be worried, parents are less keen on boys and therefore most of them drop out of school to do business, parents are less protective of them can let them move out of the house, they are less monitored, ” said Dr Mugo, adding that in rural areas, the connection between education leading to a prosperous future is less desirable.

Dr Mugo said that for literacy and numeracy to improve, teachers need to improve on their contact hours with students.

“We find that absenteeism of both students and the teachers contributed highly to the dismal results posted by pupils, teachers don’t utilise the 35-minute lesson time,” he said
He said parents have a role to play by making homes a conducive environment for studying.

“A home should even have a magazine that pupils can read while at home and parents giving children time at home improves the performance of the children,” he said.
Dr Mugo further emphasised that making pupils repeat classes does not lead to them performing better.

The solution was to move them to the next class and provide remedial teaching for them to catch up, he said.

“Research has found that older pupils in the same class as younger ones perform worse, let the poor performing students transit to the next class and catch up through extra hours,” said Dr Mugo.

The report showed that among pupils enrolled in Standard Seven, one out of four pupils cannot do a Standard Two level literacy and numeracy test. Only two out of three pupils enrolled in Standard Three can do Standard Two assignment.