Four thousand primary schools are set for closer scrutiny over their performance in next month’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) after the government’s heavy financial expenditure to boost their grades.
The Ministry of Education has since 2015 put the schools under a programme to lift their mean average scores to above the half-way mark.
Schools from all parts of the country that scored 243 marks and below during the 2013 and 2014 KCPE were selected for this programme. Elijah Mungai, the acting director of Delivery of Projects at the Ministry of Education, said the schools were funded under a four-year project to ensure they raise their performance from the meagre mean of 243. They were placed under the Sh8.8 billion World-Bank funded Primary Education (Priede) Project’s school improvement programme (SIP). “We are closely monitoring the school’s performance in this year’s KCPE to see if the investment we have made on them has been worthwhile as the project heads to its initial end-term,” Mr Mungai said. Teachers from the schools have received training to equip them with skills on how to help boost learners’ competence in critical skills.
