The school system in Kenya is undergoing change and we are closely watching how these changes are being implemented. One of the aspects is a shift from an exam-based system to assessment-based results.
It will be a challenge to get right. The existing exam-based system has some faults but is easy to understand and apply. Children typically sit one set of exams at the end of each term and receive one overall grade.
The grade at the end of primary school determines which secondary school they are assigned to, and the grade at the end of four years of secondary school will decide if they go to university. A C+ grade is the cut-off for a university offer and the better the grade, the better the offer.
A requirement of their RRBF scholarship is that the children send in their school reports. These provide evidence that they have been in school, but more importantly tell us how they are getting on in school. We monitor their grades term by term and can identify any children that may be finding it hard to settle in secondary school, struggling with certain subjects, or maybe suffering medical issues.
We can then perhaps help with a word of encouragement or some remedial support, books or treatment.
As you can see from the chart, the overall grades of our sponsored students so far this year shows an average of around C/C+. Over a half of the children are getting a C+ or better meaning that they will get university places.
The grades do vary considerably from school to school. We certainly see that the grades achieved in boarding schools exceed those of day pupils, partly because the children spend much more time in school studying.
But the calibre of boarding school also varies. We recently visited Omar, a RRBF sponsored student at Kagumo High school. He posed for a photo with some of our team that were climbing Mount Kenya, in front of the school honours board. This showed the results of the 2022 final exams. 119 out of 391 boys achieved an A or A-, and 374 in total achieved grades of C+ or above. These are extraordinary results and suggest a high calibre of student and teaching.
So we wait to see the impact of the new assessment-based system. I do have concerns. I think the system will expose deep differences between children of wealthy families and those we support that make up the vast majority of Kenyan families.
I expect that some children will have much more encouragement at home, something that’s difficult when a child is being raised by an elderly grandparent who didn’t finish school themself. And if the child is being asked to complete an assignment at home, it will be difficult when they have no lighting or access to a laptop or internet connection. It seems that the system will almost certainly favour certain children and widen the inequality between rich and poor.