Parents’ key role in cushioning against selection heartache

The release of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results was largely followed by candidates across the country celebrating their splendid performance.

The 2017 class registered a massive improvement compared to their 2016 candidates. The number of candidates scoring more than 400 marks nearly doubled while the number of those scoring below 100 marks reduced significantly. This good performance raised in many candidates the hope of joining good secondary schools.

The assurance given by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i that every candidate who scored over 400 marks would be called to a national school was comforting to many.

But while thousands of pupils called to their dream schools received this news with pride, thousands of others are not excited. Their stars have been dimmed; their dreams shattered.

DISILLUSIONMENT

These are pupils who did not make it to schools of their choice; pupils who over the years have been cultured to believe that their success in life is pegged on their admission to particular schools.

Is it not tragic that children who should be celebrating their sterling performance are turned into victims of the unfulfilled ambitions of their parents and teachers?

When teachers earmark particular students and spend years drumming into their minds that they must score good enough marks to take them to such and such a school, they could be setting their pupils up for disillusionment.

When a parent intimates to their candidate child that anything less than an elite public or private secondary school would be considered a failure in the family, such a parent may well be setting out their child on the road to self-destruction; great expectations cause frustration.

SECOND CHOICE

Of course it is good to teach our children to be ambitious. But it is even more important to train them on how to handle disappointments and setbacks.

Settling for second or third choice is a fact of life that children ought to be introduced to at the earliest opportunity.  We all want the best for our children.

We would want all of them to be in “top performing” schools. But we must always remember that schools on their own do not perform well; students do.

Parents also ought to consider that one of the main contributing factors to a school’s good academic performance is the calibre of students that it admits.

A parent who insists on having their child admitted to a school with a Form One class whose average mark is way above their child’s may actually be destroying that child.

Once admitted to such a school, the child is likely to settle at the bottom of the class.

SELF ESTEEM

This will in turn gnaw at the child’s self-esteem and subject him or her to four years of mental and emotional torture. That child will move from class to class with a feeling of under-achievement and may eventually end up scoring a much lower grade than would have been the case had they been taken to a school that matches their ability.

But then again there are many secondary schools that do not seem to offer value addition to the students that they admit. When a school admits a Form One class whose KCPE average is 350 marks (70 per cent) and four years later spits out the same class with a mean score of D+ (35-39 per cent) in KCSE examinations, that school will have wasted a whole generation!

If the same pattern repeats itself over the years, the school gains notoriety. It does not matter whether the school is labelled “national” or “county”. It is no wonder that children admitted to such schools feel cheated. It is also understandable that parents treat admissions to such schools with apprehension and will go to great lengths to look for “greener pastures” for their children. 

With every passing year, it is becoming more and more apparent that many parents with KCPE candidates are usually caught totally off-guard after the release of the exam results, especially when the Form 1 selection process does not seem to favour their children.

GUIDANCE

But this should not be the case. School selection takes place in First Term, the same time KCPE registration takes place. Candidates make a choice of 11 public schools: four national schools, three extra-county schools, two county schools and two sub-county schools.

The parent is supposed to be at the centre of the selection process to offer guidance.

But often teachers take it upon themselves to choose schools for their pupils and sometimes they do not inform parents of the choices they have made for their children. Many parents only get to learn of these choices in December after the Form One selection process is over. By then the teachers have already washed their hands of their pupils.

Parents could do well to familiarise themselves with the school selection process. This will help them psychologically prepare their children for the outcome of the choices they make.

For instance, while choosing national schools, parents have to bear in mind that these schools fall into four clusters based on the competitiveness (in terms of demand) of the schools.

NATIONAL SCHOOLS

A candidate can only choose one school from each cluster.  All the well-known “original” national schools such as Loreto Limuru, Lenana School, Nairobi School, Alliance and Mary Hill among others are in one cluster.

Another cluster includes schools such as Friends School Kamusinga, Karima Girls, Machakos Boys and Moi Girls Isinya. In yet another cluster we have schools such as Moyale Boys, Nyandarua High, Lamu Girls and Oloolaiser High School.

The fourth cluster has schools such as Bishop Gatimu Ngandu, Kitui High School, Mugoiri Girls and Kilgoris Boys. If a candidate chooses the most competitive school in each cluster, he or she runs the risk of missing out on most of his or her choices unless they are assured of an extremely good performance. It is the parents’ role to help children make reasonable choices. A child who misses out on national schools will then be considered for schools falling in the extra-county, county or sub-county categories.

ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS

After making their choices around March, the parent has over seven months to prepare their child psychologically for any of the schools they have chosen. This they can do by finding out as much information as they can about the schools or perhaps by visiting as many schools on their list as possible. They can also explore alternative private schools and find out beforehand which schools demand that candidates sit for interviews before admission.

With proper planning, parents can minimise the heartache associated with Form One selection. They will give their children a chance to celebrate their achievement and not turn their children’s moment of glory into moments of worry.  

 Mr Muthiora is the Principal, Strathmore School [email protected]