Stakeholders urged to improve education standards

Narok, Tuesday June 27, 2023

KNA by John Kaleke

Education Stakeholders in Narok have been asked to improve education standards in the context of accessibility, equity, retention, quality and standards of education as key indicators of successful education achievements in the county.

Speaking during an education stakeholders conference at Maasai Mara University, Governor Patrick Ntutu said the meeting to consult, dialogue and discuss matters affecting the education sector and aim to improve the standards of education in the county.

He said the county government will work towards the achievements of quality, accessibility and ready to discuss the matters concerning education of the children as enshrined by the constitution of Kenya.

“There are several challenges still preventing our children from enjoying this basic human right, as enshrined by the constitution,” Ntutu said.

Ntutu highlighted several challenges that still affect children in schools in the county from accessing quality education such as teachers to students’ ratio, Female genital mutilation (FGM), teenage pregnancies, early marriages, child labor, poor infrastructure among others.

The Governor said these challenges require all stakeholders to work together, speak together with one voice so as to be addressed fully.

Ntutu said that though the education sector in the county for the past few years has been improving steadily, the performance in both secondary and primary education has been seen growing at a slow pace.

With regards to trends in performance of national examinations in 2022, the county had a mean score of 220 marks against mean average of 250 marks in the Kenya Certificate of primary Education (KCPE) examinations while in Kenya Certificate of Secondary education (KCSE) examinations, the county had a mean grade of 3.65 points against a mean average of 6 points.

Ntutu called on the stakeholders to work towards the achievement of quality education among the learners, as they are the future generation.

“Because we have seen the trends and understand the challenges, the questions we ask ourselves as stakeholders is that; what measures are we putting in place to ensure Narok County becomes a county of academic excellence?” Ntutu added.

Similar sentiments were echoed by the County Commissioner Isaac Masinde who said that the infrastructure of many of the schools in the county are still in poor state, therefore there is a need for stakeholders to improve on the education standards.

Masinde said that there are over 150 cases in courts on FGM and over 150 cases in court on early teenage pregnancies in the county, thus there is still a major challenge in FGM and teenage pregnancies in Narok.

He urged the schools head teachers and principals to engage with other stakeholders to address these major challenges in schools on the issue of early marriages and teenage pregnancies in schools to ensure there is a reducing rate.

On her part, Women Representative Ms Rebecca Tonkei, who is also the chairperson of the education committee noted that the education sector in the county is still lacking behind.

Tonkei said Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) will soon bring to an end the issue of national schools so as to ensure there is equity in the education sector in the country.

She thanked the stakeholders for offering scholarships to students in the county, thus they contributed a lot for enabling many bright students from poor backgrounds to pursue their dreams.

The county Woman Representative added that county leadership should set full scholarships to those who were poor and needy, because there are many students who stay at home for lack of school fees.

Maasai Mara University Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Peninah Aloo Obudho, asked the government to consider placing students first to county schools of residence before placing them to other county schools.

Obudho said Narok County has a potential of improving education standards, but calls for actions for all stakeholders in the sector to enhance education development. She enumerated the challenges affect girls’ performance in the county as FGM, early Marriages, and teenage pregnancies.

The Vice Chancellor said that the university would ensure mentorship programmes in High schools are enhanced, especially for the girls to improve girls’ performance in schools. The programme started in Nyeri County and worked well among girls’ performance.

Further, Obudho encouraged all the stakeholders that challenges in the education sector can be surmount through various strong partnerships and collaborations with all stakeholders in the education sector. 

The County Director of Education, Apollo Apuka, also enumerated challenges the education system faces in terms of transition such as inadequate classrooms, long distances, poverty, child labor, lack of feeding program over- age enrolment, indiscipline cases and preference of outside schools other than county schools.

“Our statistics show that 50 per cent of the learners who transit to secondary schools go to other counties' schools. Therefore, bursaries given to these students would not be used locally, thus it disadvantages the county,” commented Apuko.

Apuko noted that in terms of education quality, the county has several challenges such as inadequate school assessment because of inadequate funding, low attendance, congested classrooms, understanding in schools, and there is a need for stakeholders to cheap in and improve education standards.

In education accessibility, early child education the county stands at 52 per cent not accessing while in equity there is a variation of 50 per cent of which the county is not doing badly in terms of equity.

In education transition, in primary school the county has a 110 per cent transition, and when it comes to Junior Secondary School the transitions stand at 97 per cent while in both primary and secondary schools the county stands at 35 per cent transitions.

Apuko noted that in teenage pregnancies as a county have reduced greatly, as at the year 2021, the county percentage was 46 per cent while currently the county percentage is at 28 per cent which is a positive move as county

The theme of the conference is to enhance communal participation for the improvement of quality and standards of education in Narok county.

Courtesy ; K. N. A