I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million! Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money) We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines! I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment. If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP). This is a national disaster. O~(   --- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote: From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system. For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere. WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010 Akich Kwach ----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans  paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject:        [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date:           29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of  exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official. Cheers and Happy New Year Akich Kwach ----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry. Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further. In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better? Ndemo.

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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This message was sent to: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mureithi%40summitstrate...

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic. Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school? -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007. Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents. In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende. Just my personal thoughts. Regards Ndemo.

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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Listeners, Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities. Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs. This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school. Akich Kwach ----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal Listerners, My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels. Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality. At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university. Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife? Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic. Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school? -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007. Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents. In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende. Just my personal thoughts. Regards Ndemo.

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world" _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: emuchiri@andestbites.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/emuchiri%40andestbites. com _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: saguyo@yahoo.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/saguyo%40yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: kwach@archway-productions.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kwach%40archway-product...

Dkt Ndemo, Thanks for sharing such well researched facts, it is sad how girls are suffering in the countryside and have to spend many days out of school. MoH should be availing those sanitary towels to school girls just as they are dispensing condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. The concept of Continious Assessment is a good one; however, this is likely to experience abuse as a result of dishonesty and corruption going by the tradition of our countrymen and women. The society and its people requires to be morally upright for such useful systems to serve and achieve their set objectives. Thanks also for throwing light on how ICT will help improve quality of education through e-learning, though it will take long as its implementation depends on other factors such as energy. This afternoon, I met a man carrying the traditional "mabati box/ suitcase" for boarding school students and after egaging him in a brief chat, it emerged he didn't have a child reporting to form-one / secondary school. He told me he is taking his son to to a private primary school as he can nolonger gamble with the future of his child in a public school. That is how serious the issue is out here. Todate, I have not seen or heard any communication from MoE commiting to look into the crisis in public primary schools, and they are only telling us that funds are being disbursed to schools; BUT FOR WHAT? Just to balance the books of accounts Or to deliver quality service? Is Kenya going through mid-life crisis? I guess we have a senior person from the MoE on the list. Akich Kwach ----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "Akich Kwach" <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <bitange@jambo.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 3:12 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Akich, I understand your frustration. We need to emulate the British education reforms. Final exams only account for a small percentage. Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo. World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13. Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in. In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month. Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers. We can change this nonsense with ICT. We need to send end term exam result to a central database. Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC. We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing. KCPE will then contribute the 40%. Let us go back to our girls with this model. A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE. This model will actually eliminate cheating. It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making. I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field. This will be our little contribution to our education. Ndemo.

Listeners, Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Listerners,

My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

Sam

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic.

Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school?

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007.

Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents.

In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende.

Just my personal thoughts.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its

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to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of

...

population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a

value the theft

...

scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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Dear Solomon, I want to give you a different perspective of ourselves as a people. We tend to shift blame here and there when the problem is us. There is nothing wrong with any system in this country including our constitutional order. We simply like to complicate our lives. On education, we have never thought about the economics of this animal called education. In the 21st century we still have more than 60% of our high school graduates going into arts subjects. Majority into business education even when we know that the field is saturated or in economic terms supply has exceeded exceeded demand. The cosequence of not understanding this simple economic is that we have too many unemployed graduates. At the same time if you put up an add for an executive Chef, you will hardly find our locals applying. We have gemstons, gold and diamonds within the region yet our children have never had the interest to get into these employable fields. Mzungus told us that careers were in Medicine, Business, Teaching and Legal. Ever since we want our children to pursue these fields. Do you blame a system for this? The other day a friend of mine's son said he wanted to become a chef. His father almost broke down. If we were honest, it is not difficult to provides pads to all our daughters but most of us are demented with corruption. The school milk programme was great but we know most of the resources ended up in some people's pockets. In my view we need mental re-orientation to change our attitudes. How do you explain unemployment when manufacture of bar soap is as easy as drinking water yet none of the Africans are in this trade. We Gladly import dried tomatoes to the tune of Ksh. 15 billion when 50% of our tomato produce ends up in the waste. We harvet bumber crop then we start competing with weavils yet our graduates with expertie in post harvet from JKUAT languish without jobs. Solomon, it is not the systems that we need to change. Ndemo.

I'm hoping one day to have children and take them to school to acquire their inalienable right, called education. But then, I'm puzzled - Is 8-4-4 or the British System the best? I have passed through 8-4-4 and I can list a thousand and one blunders the system has. One of which is the grading system. A child studies for more than eight years and a single grade determines whether the child will continue with the next level of education, remain semi-literate, end up on the police's most wanted list or, if lucky, I jump from one school to another oiling the hands of the principals to accept my child. That's how this system is made... because it has refused to change to the demands in time. For instance, how many of you have ever taken a look at the Education Act? You'd be surprised that this document was last reviewed in 1980. It does not even have a room for private schools, Standard 8 or even other curricula as we have in Kenya today. It has *Harambee Schools,* as some of the main schools in Kenya. By far, I know these schools were converted into Community Schools or better still, NFEs!

When I got a copy of the Act, I thought it was a wrong document, but hey, it's the same document which is supposed to offer direction in our education standards, yet by fact, it's a document that exists on the minds of many.

So, as Dr. Ndemo has put it, ICT can change our education perception, wht about the education system itself, which is almost 30 years old since it was last reviewed, will it surely change the status quo?

I find it callous when politicians are busy talking about a new constitution and I'm sure they do not have an idea that Education Act is much older than the clarion for new constitutional dispensation!

I pray that I'll not think of sending my child to an 'international school' because I'm a patriotic Kenyan. The educational reforms need to be done ASAP, because we are ending up training children to pas exams and not understand the values and goals of education in relation to their lives.

I wish some senior person in the Ministry of Education were on this list!

2010/1/7 Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com>

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Dkt Ndemo, Thanks for sharing such well researched facts, it is sad how girls are suffering in the countryside and have to spend many days out of school. MoH should be availing those sanitary towels to school girls just as they are dispensing condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. The concept of Continious Assessment is a good one; however, this is likely to experience abuse as a result of dishonesty and corruption going by the tradition of our countrymen and women. The society and its people requires to be morally upright for such useful systems to serve and achieve their set objectives. Thanks also for throwing light on how ICT will help improve quality of education through e-learning, though it will take long as its implementation depends on other factors such as energy.

This afternoon, I met a man carrying the traditional "mabati box/ suitcase" for boarding school students and after egaging him in a brief chat, it emerged he didn't have a child reporting to form-one / secondary school. He told me he is taking his son to to a private primary school as he can nolonger gamble with the future of his child in a public school. That is how serious the issue is out here. Todate, I have not seen or heard any communication from MoE commiting to look into the crisis in public primary schools, and they are only telling us that funds are being disbursed to schools; BUT FOR WHAT? Just to balance the books of accounts Or to deliver quality service? Is Kenya going through mid-life crisis? I guess we have a senior person from the MoE on the list.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "Akich Kwach" <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <bitange@jambo.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 3:12 PM

Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, I understand your frustration. We need to emulate the British education reforms. Final exams only account for a small percentage. Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo.

World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13. Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in. In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month. Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers.

We can change this nonsense with ICT. We need to send end term exam result to a central database. Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC. We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing. KCPE will then contribute the 40%. Let us go back to our girls with this model. A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE.

This model will actually eliminate cheating. It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making.

I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field. This will be our little contribution to our education.

Ndemo.

Listeners,

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Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Listerners,

My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

Sam

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic.

Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school?

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri <kictanet-bounces%2Bemuchiri>= andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007.

Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents.

In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende.

Just my personal thoughts.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote: > > Zachary > This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value > to > our > society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the > population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and > 2228 > worked. > ____________ > Muriuki Mureithi > Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone > > ________________ Reply Header ________________ > Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal > Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> > Date: 29th December 2009 09:59 > > > Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National > Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the > platform > doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who > sat > KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of > the > results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where > the > candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse > still, > the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to > get > results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the > tune of > Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the > definition, > coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft > scandal. > > One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing > the > top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But > it is > anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather > than > bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri > should > tell us what is bedevilling FPE. > > Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until > she > gets her results. > > > > --- Be the change you want to see in the world. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > This message was sent to: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke > Unsubscribe or change your options at >

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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-- Solomon Mbũrũ Kamau P.O. Box 19343 - 00202 Nairobi Cell: (+254-0) 735 431041

Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way to the side of a hill!

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Dear Ps, This is one of the best assessment I've ever read in recent times - on the "State of affairs", as matters stand now in our beloved nation. "Economies of scale", in our Education landscape is a very important concept to bring up for discussion. Hopefully, all stakeholders (all of us )would pick up on this and address where we can. I wonder how this message can have a wider reach, to audience out there - starting with the lecture halls of our institutions of higher learning. Could our Academicians pick cue on this, and organize some speaking engagements for the PS to hold a series of lectures, so that it's not only this forum that benefits.. Hope he would find time, out of his busy schedule.. Just a suggestion. Again, won't it be good to do an editorial in the main papers on this theme. Can the scribes on the forum pick up, and amplify it. It is always good to do an own internal assessment to determine where the 'rain started beating us' and make ammends where possible. Regards, Harry -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 2:54 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Dear Solomon, I want to give you a different perspective of ourselves as a people. We tend to shift blame here and there when the problem is us. There is nothing wrong with any system in this country including our constitutional order. We simply like to complicate our lives. On education, we have never thought about the economics of this animal called education. In the 21st century we still have more than 60% of our high school graduates going into arts subjects. Majority into business education even when we know that the field is saturated or in economic terms supply has exceeded exceeded demand. The cosequence of not understanding this simple economic is that we have too many unemployed graduates. At the same time if you put up an add for an executive Chef, you will hardly find our locals applying. We have gemstons, gold and diamonds within the region yet our children have never had the interest to get into these employable fields. Mzungus told us that careers were in Medicine, Business, Teaching and Legal. Ever since we want our children to pursue these fields. Do you blame a system for this? The other day a friend of mine's son said he wanted to become a chef. His father almost broke down. If we were honest, it is not difficult to provides pads to all our daughters but most of us are demented with corruption. The school milk programme was great but we know most of the resources ended up in some people's pockets. In my view we need mental re-orientation to change our attitudes. How do you explain unemployment when manufacture of bar soap is as easy as drinking water yet none of the Africans are in this trade. We Gladly import dried tomatoes to the tune of Ksh. 15 billion when 50% of our tomato produce ends up in the waste. We harvet bumber crop then we start competing with weavils yet our graduates with expertie in post harvet from JKUAT languish without jobs. Solomon, it is not the systems that we need to change. Ndemo.

I'm hoping one day to have children and take them to school to acquire their inalienable right, called education. But then, I'm puzzled - Is 8-4-4 or the British System the best? I have passed through 8-4-4 and I can list a thousand and one blunders the system has. One of which is the grading system. A child studies for more than eight years and a single grade determines whether the child will continue with the next level of education, remain semi-literate, end up on the police's most wanted list or, if lucky, I jump from one school to another oiling the hands of the principals to accept my child. That's how this system is made... because it has refused to change to the demands in time. For instance, how many of you have ever taken a look at the Education Act? You'd be surprised that this document was last reviewed in 1980. It does not even have a room for private schools, Standard 8 or even other curricula as we have in Kenya today. It has *Harambee Schools,* as some of the main schools in Kenya. By far, I know these schools were converted into Community Schools or better still, NFEs!

When I got a copy of the Act, I thought it was a wrong document, but hey, it's the same document which is supposed to offer direction in our education standards, yet by fact, it's a document that exists on the minds of many.

So, as Dr. Ndemo has put it, ICT can change our education perception, wht about the education system itself, which is almost 30 years old since it was last reviewed, will it surely change the status quo?

I find it callous when politicians are busy talking about a new constitution and I'm sure they do not have an idea that Education Act is much older than the clarion for new constitutional dispensation!

I pray that I'll not think of sending my child to an 'international school' because I'm a patriotic Kenyan. The educational reforms need to be done ASAP, because we are ending up training children to pas exams and not understand the values and goals of education in relation to their lives.

I wish some senior person in the Ministry of Education were on this list!

2010/1/7 Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com>

...

Dkt Ndemo, Thanks for sharing such well researched facts, it is sad how girls are suffering in the countryside and have to spend many days out of school. MoH should be availing those sanitary towels to school girls just as they are dispensing condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. The concept of Continious Assessment is a good one; however, this is likely to experience abuse as a result of dishonesty and corruption going by the tradition of our countrymen and women. The society and its people requires to be morally upright for such useful systems to serve and achieve their set objectives. Thanks also for throwing light on how ICT will help improve quality of education through e-learning, though it will take long as its implementation depends on other factors such as energy.

This afternoon, I met a man carrying the traditional "mabati box/ suitcase" for boarding school students and after egaging him in a brief chat, it emerged he didn't have a child reporting to form-one / secondary school. He told me he is taking his son to to a private primary school as he can nolonger gamble with the future of his child in a public school. That is how serious the issue is out here. Todate, I have not seen or heard any communication from MoE commiting to look into the crisis in public primary schools, and they are only telling us that funds are being disbursed to schools; BUT FOR WHAT? Just to balance the books of accounts Or to deliver quality service? Is Kenya going through mid-life crisis? I guess we have a senior person from the MoE on the list.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "Akich Kwach" <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <bitange@jambo.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 3:12 PM

Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, I understand your frustration. We need to emulate the British education reforms. Final exams only account for a small percentage. Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo.

World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13. Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in. In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month. Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers.

We can change this nonsense with ICT. We need to send end term exam result to a central database. Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC. We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing. KCPE will then contribute the 40%. Let us go back to our girls with this model. A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE.

This model will actually eliminate cheating. It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making.

I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field. This will be our little contribution to our education.

Ndemo.

Listeners,

...

Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Listerners,

My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

Sam

-------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic.

Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school?

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri <kictanet-bounces%2Bemuchiri>= andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007.

Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents.

In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende.

Just my personal thoughts.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can > be > sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of > public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity > is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether > we > need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your > couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether > personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> > Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM > Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving > candidates,parents a raw deal > > > Dear Wesley, > No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they > passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into > Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we > need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the > KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for > KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the > moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to > complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, > politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of > reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in > Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why > Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss >> high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this >> adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about >> 40 >> million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government >> spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get >> to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not >> get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from >> rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled >> man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company >> in >> some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some >> people, >> they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs >> in >> order to extort money) >> >> We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to >> archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision >> 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese >> will >> continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even >> specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would >> happen >> if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers >> enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B >> grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to >> goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add >> to >> our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education >> for >> our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> >> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal >> To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com >> Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke >> Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM >> >> Gentlemen, >> Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be >> interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have >> tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I >> spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the >> ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might >> lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr >> Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at >> the >> KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general >> national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where >> candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something >> is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

...

implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans

...

MM, >>> >>> I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System,

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> >> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> >> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> >> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM >> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal >> >> >>> Thanks barrack >>> For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system >>> and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind >>> huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the paid >>> upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered >>> >>> >>> ____________ >>> Muriuki Mureithi >>> Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone >>> >>> ________________ Reply Header ________________ >>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal >>> Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> >>> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51 >>> the problem stems >>> from >>> how >>> the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers >>> handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately >>> after >>> the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the >>> best >>> servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were >>> unable >>> to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will >>> do >>> better in 2010.

...

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote: > > Zachary > This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its

...

> ____________ > Muriuki Mureithi > Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone >>>> >>>> ________________ Reply Header ________________ >>>> Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal >>>> Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> >>>> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59 >>>> >>>> >>>> Despite the digitisation of exam results by

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> the >>>> results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where >>>> the >>>> candidates are supposed to check

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> still, > the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to >>>> get >>>> results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the >>>> tune of >>>> Ksh 20 per SMS. If

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> > One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing >>>> the >>>> top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned

value >>>> to >>>> our >>>> society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the >>>> population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and >>>> 2228 >>>> worked. the Kenya National >>>> Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the >>>> platform >>>> doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who >>>> sat >>>> KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of their results remains down. Worse this is not a rip off, then I don't know the >>>> definition, >>>> coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft >>>> scandal. the names of their schools. But

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> it is > anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather > than > bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri >>>> should >>>> tell us what is bedevilling FPE. > > Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until >>>> she >>>> gets her results. > > > > --- Be the change you want to see in the world. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > This message was sent to: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke > Unsubscribe or change your options at >>>>

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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-- Solomon Mbũrũ Kamau P.O. Box 19343 - 00202 Nairobi Cell: (+254-0) 735 431041

Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way to the side of a hill!

AND

It is better to die in dignity than in the ignomity of ambiguous generosity!

http://dawn-in-kenya.blogspot.com http://smiley2.wordpress.com http://mburu.sikika.co.ke

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Akich, "The concept of  Continious Assessment is a good one; however, this is likely to experience abuse as a result of dishonesty and corruption going by the tradition of our countrymen and women. The society and its people requires to be morally upright for such useful systems to serve and achieve their set objectives." The statement above is correct. A solution would be to have schools send samples of the Continuous Assessments to KNEC for moderation. This may be done annually and the samples, which will accompany the submitted marks list, should include those that scored the top, middle and lowest marks. Since we trust the KNEC markers, we can trust them to moderate the CAT samples and award just marks. Regards, Jotham --- On Thu, 1/7/10, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote: From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: jokilimo@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 7:34 AM Dkt Ndemo, Thanks for sharing such well researched facts, it is sad how girls are suffering in the countryside and have to spend many days out of school. MoH should be availing those sanitary towels to school girls just as they are dispensing condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. The concept of  Continious Assessment is a good one; however, this is likely to experience abuse as a result of dishonesty and corruption going by the tradition of our countrymen and women. The society and its people requires to be morally upright for such useful systems to serve and achieve their set objectives. Thanks also for throwing light on how ICT will help improve quality of education through e-learning, though it will take long as its implementation depends on other factors such as energy. This afternoon, I met a man carrying the traditional "mabati box/ suitcase" for boarding school students and after egaging him in a brief chat, it emerged he didn't have a child reporting to form-one / secondary school. He told me he is taking his son to to a private primary school as he can nolonger gamble with the future of his child in a public school. That is how serious the issue is out here. Todate, I have not seen or heard any communication from MoE commiting to look into the crisis in public primary schools, and they are only telling us that funds are being disbursed to schools; BUT FOR WHAT? Just to balance the books of accounts Or to deliver quality service?  Is Kenya going through mid-life crisis? I guess we have a senior person from the MoE on the list. Akich Kwach ----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "Akich Kwach" <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <bitange@jambo.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 3:12 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Akich, I understand your frustration.  We need to emulate the British education reforms.  Final exams only account for a small percentage.  Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo. World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13.  Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in.  In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month.  Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers. We can change this nonsense with ICT.  We need to send end term exam result to a central database.  Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC.  We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing.  KCPE will then contribute the 40%.  Let us go back to our girls with this model.  A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE. This model will actually eliminate cheating.  It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making. I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field.  This will be our little contribution to our education. Ndemo.

Listeners, Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message -----    From: Sam Aguyo    To: kwach@archway-productions.com    Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions    Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM    Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

   Listerners,

   My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else.   Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

   Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden  boys etc.  Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something.  At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on.  This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

   At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild  since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

   Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it.  By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

   Sam

------------------------------------------------------------------------------    From: Esther Muchiri <>    To: saguyo@yahoo.com    Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net>    Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM    Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

   Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially    considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of    'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason    or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor    performance, e.g. panic.

   Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those    who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3    month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified    candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them    hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer    bridging courses - why not high school?

   -----Original Message-----    From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke    [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On    Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke    Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM    To: emuchiri@andestbites.com    Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users    Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,    parents a raw deal

   Akich,    The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex.  As a child    growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the    country.  Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove    "foreigners".  We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in    Dec. 2007.

   Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they    consider students.  Some have to till their shambas first.  These are the    people we call hard working and we all know about this.  There is no    passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular.    Ministry of education knows about this.  The solution is difficult and    highly political.  Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired.    Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all    corners including yes parents.

   In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to    undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil    servant.  We must tie performance to any pay increase.  Atwoli apende    asipende.

   Just my personal thoughts.

   Regards

   Ndemo.

   > Daktari Ndemo,    > As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can    > be    > sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of    > public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity    > is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether    > we    > need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your    > couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether    > personal or official.    >    > Cheers and Happy New Year    >    > Akich Kwach    >    >    >    > ----- Original Message -----    > From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke>    > To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com>    > Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions"    > <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net>    > Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM    > Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving    > candidates,parents a raw deal    >    >    > Dear Wesley,    > No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they    > passed.  Already we have B grade students who are not getting into    > Universiry.    >    > Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we    > need KCPE exams.  To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If    > our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the    > KCSE exams.  The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for    > KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At    > KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the    > moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.    >    > In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media    > keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems.  Citizens continue to    > complain and not making proposals to the Government.  The KNUT, parents,    > politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of    > reforming the sector.  KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in    > Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE.  Then we ask why    > Private Schools perform better?    >    >    > Ndemo.    >    >    >    >    >    >> I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss    >> high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this    >> adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about    >> 40    >> million!    >>    >> Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university.    >> Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government    >> spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get    >> to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not    >> get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from    >> rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and    >> skilled    >> man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company    >> in    >> some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some    >> people,    >> they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs    >> in    >> order to extort money)    >>    >> We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to    >> archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision    >> 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese    >> will    >> continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even    >> specialized machines!    >>    >> I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low    >> performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would    >> happen    >> if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers    >> enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B    >> grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to    >> goverment.    >>    >> If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add    >> to    >> our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education    >> for    >> our children (which definately adds to our GDP).    >>    >> This is a national disaster.    >>    >> O~(    >>    >>    >> --- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:    >>    >> From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com>    >> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal    >> To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com    >> Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke    >> Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM    >>    >> Gentlemen,    >> Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary    >> because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be    >> interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have    >> tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I    >> spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the    >> ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might    >> lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr    >> Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at    >> the    >> KNEC system.    >>    >> For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general    >> national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where    >> candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something    >> is not right somewhere.    >>    >> WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010    >>    >> Akich Kwach    >>    >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi"    >> <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke>    >> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com>    >> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>    >> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM    >> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal    >>    >>    >>> Thanks barrack    >>> For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system    >>> and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind    >>> huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the    >>> implications.    >>> Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid    >>> upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered    >>>    >>>    >>> ____________    >>> Muriuki Mureithi    >>> Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone    >>>    >>> ________________ Reply Header ________________    >>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal    >>> Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>    >>> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51    >>>    >>> MM,    >>>    >>> I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems    >>> from    >>> how    >>> the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers    >>> handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately    >>> after    >>> the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the    >>> best    >>> servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were    >>> unable    >>> to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will    >>> do    >>> better in 2010.    >>>    >>> Happy New Year !    >>>    >>> On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:    >>>>    >>>> Zachary    >>>> This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value    >>>> to    >>>> our    >>>> society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of the    >>>> population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and    >>>> 2228    >>>> worked.    >>>> ____________    >>>> Muriuki Mureithi    >>>> Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone    >>>>    >>>> ________________ Reply Header ________________    >>>> Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal    >>>> Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com>    >>>> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59    >>>>    >>>>    >>>> Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National    >>>> Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the    >>>> platform    >>>> doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who    >>>> sat    >>>> KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of    >>>> the    >>>> results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where    >>>> the    >>>> candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse    >>>> still,    >>>> the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to    >>>> get    >>>> results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the    >>>> tune of    >>>> Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the    >>>> definition,    >>>> coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a theft    >>>> scandal.    >>>>    >>>> One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing    >>>> the    >>>> top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But    >>>> it is    >>>> anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather    >>>> than    >>>> bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri    >>>> should    >>>> tell us what is bedevilling FPE.    >>>>    >>>> Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until    >>>> she    >>>> gets her results.    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>> --- Be the change you want to see in the world.    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>>    >>>> _______________________________________________    >>>> kictanet mailing list    >>>> kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke    >>>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet    >>>>    >>>> This message was sent to: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke    >>>> Unsubscribe or change your options at    >>>>

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Dr. Ndemo, While am all for the prescription of ICT as a solution to this endermic problem, for what it is worth, if you may....we need to be careful of not ignoring the need to make some structured changed to our culture and way of living because they are anti-productive. In this case, though your ICT solution is fantastic, we need to let our rural folks know that when a girl is 13, she starts a cycle that requires her to use sanitary pads and then go to school, instead of staying at home. It is absurd that in the 21 century, our folks cannot appreciate the value of educating the female spice and we come up with all kinds of nice excuses to keep them at bay. Am sorry but we need to uproot that mindset and dispose it quickly. I have found something else under the sun, we have a tendancy in Africa to go around the problem when we should face it headon and deal with it. One of the reasons for failure of ICT projects is not because of ICT but we apply it to processes and structures that need to change and because we dont change those processes and structures, the outcomes is zero and then we blame it on ICT. Good evening. Eric here On 7 Jan 2010, at 12:12, bitange@jambo.co.ke wrote:

Akich, I understand your frustration. We need to emulate the British education reforms. Final exams only account for a small percentage. Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo.

World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13. Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in. In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month. Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers.

We can change this nonsense with ICT. We need to send end term exam result to a central database. Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC. We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing. KCPE will then contribute the 40%. Let us go back to our girls with this model. A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE.

This model will actually eliminate cheating. It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making.

I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field. This will be our little contribution to our education.

Ndemo.

...

Listeners, Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Listerners,

My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

Sam

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic.

Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school?

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007.

Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents.

In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende.

Just my personal thoughts.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

...

Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

...

Zachary This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its

...

to our society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent of

...

population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall and 2228 worked. ____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> Date: 29th December 2009 09:59

Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the candidates who sat KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC website from where the candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their index numbers to get results is also not working but continues to consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does at a time when the ministry is reeling from a

value the theft

...

scandal.

One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing the top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their schools. But it is anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather than bash the media as he did during the release of the results, Ongeri should tell us what is bedevilling FPE.

Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until she gets her results.

--- Be the change you want to see in the world.

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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Eric M.K Osiakwan Director Internet Research www.internetresearch.com.gh emko@internetresearch.com.gh 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North Tel: +233.21.258800 ext 7031 Fax: +233.21.258811 Cell: +233.24.4386792

ICT has never been silver bullet, probably will never be... But does a good job as a catalyst/accelerator. Harry...not Delano :-) Sent from my iPhone On 8 Jan 2010, at 05:40, "Harry Delano" <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:

Eric here,

I agree with you on this. ICT might be a driver, and a solution to most of our current circumstances but not the ultimate answer to all our problems and ills.

Thanks Dr. Ndemo, for sharing the research on what ails the performance of girls in our Education system. Am certain a lot of folks are not aware of this, and for this reason the ministry(ies) responsible have their homework cut out, to sensitize and mobilize resources and deal with this directly and urgently - The world over, no one can dare underestimate the contribution of womenfolk to the economy.

Can some of the funds allocated for FPE, especially to Rural schools go towards purchasing pads to be made available for these girls,at school so that they do not miss classes...? - My ten cents.. Again is there any senior Education Ministry official on the listing to take this up - I think it's an issue that needs urgent attention..

Secondly, our dear sisters on the listing. I think you'd be best placed to offer suggestions on how best to deal with this issue.

Harry

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Eric M.K Osiakwan Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 9:47 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dr. Ndemo,

While am all for the prescription of ICT as a solution to this endermic problem, for what it is worth, if you may....we need to be careful of not ignoring the need to make some structured changed to our culture and way of living because they are anti-productive.

In this case, though your ICT solution is fantastic, we need to let our rural folks know that when a girl is 13, she starts a cycle that requires her to use sanitary pads and then go to school, instead of staying at home. It is absurd that in the 21 century, our folks cannot appreciate the value of educating the female spice and we come up with all kinds of nice excuses to keep them at bay. Am sorry but we need to uproot that mindset and dispose it quickly.

I have found something else under the sun, we have a tendancy in Africa to go around the problem when we should face it headon and deal with it. One of the reasons for failure of ICT projects is not because of ICT but we apply it to processes and structures that need to change and because we dont change those processes and structures, the outcomes is zero and then we blame it on ICT.

Good evening.

Eric here

On 7 Jan 2010, at 12:12, bitange@jambo.co.ke wrote:

...

Akich, I understand your frustration. We need to emulate the British education reforms. Final exams only account for a small percentage. Let me explain the depth of our education problems then show you why we need to change the status quo.

World over, Girls do better than boys between ages 6 and 13. Boys only begin to be competitive after testestron kicks in. In rural Kenya very bright young girls are wasted every year because by 13, they begin their periods and in the absence of sanitary towels, they miss classes between 5 and seven days every month. Obviously their KCPE results come out poor and then we consign them to becoming House Girls in urban centers.

We can change this nonsense with ICT. We need to send end term exam result to a central database. Each school can scan the report card and have it sent to KNEC. We then use the continuous assessment for up to 60% of testing. KCPE will then contribute the 40%. Let us go back to our girls with this model. A girl who performed well up to std. 6 or 7 will need very little marks to pass KCPE.

This model will actually eliminate cheating. It will also save many of our daughters from being condemed for sins that are not of their own making.

I am hoping we get to roll out Digital Villages countrywide in order to provide an e-learning platform that would level the playing field. This will be our little contribution to our education.

Ndemo.

...

Listeners, Thanks to Dkt Ndemo, Esther, Sam and all who have been contributing to this debate which is of a great national concern. As they say with education; "You are a beneficiary OR affected either directly or indirectly". From the education system, a nation produces men and women who contribute to national development. A portion of the dropouts decides to give the communities a preveiew of life in hell in the name of criminal activities.

Ndemo mentioned issues of teachers being recruited locally, hence a sinking community will continue sinking becauce they don't want to see "foreign teachers". How comes policemen are posted anywhere in the country yet they earn less than teachers (ex-bribery)? Esther's proposal of introducig bridging courses has been a success in private universities and has given opportunities to thousands to build their careers. If Sam's ideas are implemented, we shall have housegirls who are equiped to be trusted with the young ones with basic health standards, cooking and other domestic needs.

This week, I rejected some of the textbooks given to my daughter at a public school in the name of FPE because they were in pathetic conditions and I have buy them myself if she has to learn. To conclude, how many years shall it take us to be near education system like in UK where the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair once said with pride that he went to a public school.

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Aguyo To: kwach@archway-productions.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:14 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Listerners,

My view is that we need more of a change of attitude than anything else. Our minds are more of exam driven than the ultimate delivery this happens at all levels and we end up churning out questionable graduates at all levels.

Lets assume at the end of KCPE those who have not made it to form one can be absorbed at training institutions that train nannies, househelps, garden boys etc. Those who have joined form one can sit another exam KJSE and those who have not made it can be trained to be professional something. At form KCSE those who have not made it can also be trained to do something else it goes on and on. This to many sounds outrageous but it may not be far from the reality.

At the speed we are going to have everybody attain university education and end up with a white collar job, am reluctant to be near my brothers and sisters, they are wild since am not doing enough to abtain them a white collar job despite paying fees all the way to university.

Sometimes we need to borrow example this time round from US where people honour all careers and pay for it. By the way with due respect what is the profession of Mr Tiger Woods wife?

Sam

--- ------------------------------------------------------------------ --------- From: Esther Muchiri <> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: Skunk Works <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 8:43:04 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Now that we all agree there is a problem with our 8-4-4 system, especially considering the number of dropouts every year, how about an introduction of 'bridging' courses for those who did not perform so well (due to one reason or another)? I am sure there are many other factors that contribute to poor performance, e.g. panic.

Would it be wrong if some private secondary schools decided to admit those who failed (say 180-250 marks) into form one, but then offer a mandatory 3 month bridging course to bring them at par with the more qualified candidates? This would reduce the number of dropouts, and perhaps give them hope and a chance to complete secondary school. I know universities offer bridging courses - why not high school?

-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke

[mailto:kictanet-bounces +emuchiri=andestbites.com@lists.kictanet.or.k e] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:26 PM To: emuchiri@andestbites.com Cc: Skunk Works; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions; ke-users Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Re: KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

Akich, The dynamics of our democratized society are too complex. As a child growing up in rural Kisii we had teachers from different parts of the country. Our people (Kenyans) demanded that we must go local and remove "foreigners". We escalted this foreigner concept to the extent we were in Dec. 2007.

Local teachers now have to finish with their small enterprises before they consider students. Some have to till their shambas first. These are the people we call hard working and we all know about this. There is no passion to teach anymore and when they teach, they do it in venacular. Ministry of education knows about this. The solution is difficult and highly political. Reforms will see at least 50,000 teachers retired. Anybody implementing this kind of reforms would be attacked from all corners including yes parents.

In my view we need to raise the minimum teacher qualification to undergraduate and they work anywhere in the country as any other civil servant. We must tie performance to any pay increase. Atwoli apende asipende.

Just my personal thoughts.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Daktari Ndemo, As one of the concerened parents and citizens, I must admit the truth can be sometimes very bitter especially when you compare the qaulifications of public primary school teachers with that of private schools. The disparity is even worse when you look at the rural schools. On the issue of whether we need the KCPE exams, I would request you to pose that question to your couterpart at the MoE Prof Karega and share with us his opinion, whether personal or official.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: "wesley kirinya" <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> Cc: "Skunk Works" <skunkworks@my.co.ke>; "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>; "ke-users" <ke-internetusers@bdix.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates,parents a raw deal

Dear Wesley, No one should fail an exam because we have nowhere to take them if they passed. Already we have B grade students who are not getting into Universiry.

Every year we get similar concerns but no one has ever asked if indeed we need KCPE exams. To date I do not know the objective of this exam. If our promlem just like everybody else is literacy, then we only need the KCSE exams. The assumption here is that by the time someone sits for KCSE, they would be literate and mature enough to consider options. At KCPE level, I am afraid we keep on increasing our illiteracy levels the moment 250,000 fail to proceed further.

In my view we all have failed to analyse this problem objectively. Media keeps on reporting but not analysing the problems. Citizens continue to complain and not making proposals to the Government. The KNUT, parents, politicians have subjected the Ministry into crisis mode instead of reforming the sector. KNUT knows that at least one third of teacheers in Primary Public Schools cannot pass or did not pass KCPE. Then we ask why Private Schools perform better?

Ndemo.

...

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of students that will miss high school. Last year 250,000 missed it. Over a five year period, this adds up to more than a million, in a country whose population is about 40 million!

Out of those who go to high school, only a handful end up in university. Someone should do a sturdy on the loss to our economy. The government spends lots on money to educate 250,000 people annually who will not get to high school. With our current systems, most of these 250,000 will not get descent employment/stable sources of income. Most of them come from rural areas, which are the areas that need serious development and skilled man-power to drive the development. If I opened a branch of my company in some rural area of Kenya, who will I employ? Even if I employ some people, they would be threatened by the Mungiki-types (children who join gangs in order to extort money)

We need every child in Kenya, willing to go to school, to be able to archieve at least Diploma level. Without that, we should forget vision 2030 and competing with India and other Asian countries! The Chinese will continue building our roads, as Kenyans sweep them with brooms, not even specialized machines!

I would like to bring in a different perspective as to the low performance, which someone mentioned as seriously wrong. What would happen if most students passed their exams, especially now with record numbers enrolling in schools? Where will they go? You would have students with B grades missing high school. That would be a great embrassment to goverment.

If money is available to buy fleets of new cars (which dont really add to our GDP), surely there should be money for better quality of education for our children (which definately adds to our GDP).

This is a national disaster.

O~(

--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> wrote:

From: Akich Kwach <kwach@archway-productions.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal To: kiriinya2000@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:39 AM

Gentlemen, Thanks for sharing your concerns. I would agree with MM and Zachary because KNEC ought to have known every candidate and parents would be interested in getting their results at the earliest hour and should have tested the system's capacity ahead of time. It is sad upto this hour, I spent on SMS three times and no reply yet. If such trends continue, the ICT investments might just be a wate of public funds and citizens might lose faith in the so called e-Govt. I would humbly request the PS, Dr Bitange and the ICT Board to intervene and find out what transpired at the KNEC system.

For the parents who had 2009 candidates, I am concerned with the general national perfomance taking into account that subjects such as SST where candidates usually score high marks recorded poor performance, something is not right somewhere.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY 2010

Akich Kwach

----- Original Message ----- From: "mureithi" <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: <kwach@archway-productions.com> Cc: <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:43 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal

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Thanks barrack For the candidate and their family they interacted with the ict system and the interface was the sms and the web. We should not hide behind huge traffic because the phenomena and the time is known and the implications. Another terrible failure is that i and many thousands kenyans paid upfront to the ict system for a service that was not delivered

____________ Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone

________________ Reply Header ________________ Subject: Re: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal Author: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> Date: 29th December 2009 12:51

MM,

I guess it's a bit premature to blame the System, the problem stems from how the whole announcement was managed, it was improper for the Ministers handlers to say the results would be available on the site immediately after the speech, with the anxiety that had been going on i'm sure even the best servers might not have handled the hits, no wonder the systems were unable to cope, however this serves as a lesson to KNEC, i am sure they will do better in 2010.

Happy New Year !

On 12/29/09, mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote: > > Zachary > This was the great opportunity for the ict system to prove its value > to > our > society. It failed miserably to just serve less than 1 percent > of the > population and had to walk to schools. Zain however stood tall > and > 2228 > worked. > ____________ > Muriuki Mureithi > Summit Strategies Ltd sent from cellphone > > ________________ Reply Header ________________ > Subject: [kictanet] KNEC giving candidates, parents a raw deal > Author: Zachary Ochieng <zzachmbir@yahoo.com> > Date: 29th December 2009 09:59 > > > Despite the digitisation of exam results by the Kenya National > Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Ministry of Education, the > platform doesn't seem to be working. My daughter is one of the > candidates who > sat > KCPE in November 2009. But more than two hours after the release > of the results by Education minister Sam Ongeri, the KNEC > website > from where > the > candidates are supposed to check their results remains down. > Worse still, the 2228 no. to which candidates should text their > index numbers to get results is also not working but continues > to > consume airtime to the tune of Ksh 20 per SMS. If this is not a > rip off, then I don't know the definition, coming as it does > at a > time when the ministry is reeling from a theft > scandal. > > One wonders what else the ministry could be hiding. While announcing > the > top candidates, Ongeri never mentioned the names of their > schools. But > it is > anyone's guess that majority of them are from private schools. Rather > than > bash the media as he did during the release of the results, > Ongeri > should > tell us what is bedevilling FPE. > > Can someone please help? MY daughter has refused to take lunch until > she > gets her results. > > > > --- Be the change you want to see in the world. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > This message was sent to: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke > Unsubscribe or change your options at >

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-- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno

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