Development of secondary education in Kwale

Since 2012 Teachers4teachers started workshops for secondary teachers on a small scale. In 2016 HOD’s became interested in our work. They are responsible for the development of education and coaching of the teachers. Next September 2019 again three Dutch team leaders will be working with the HOD’s, which is going to be very interesting according to the challenges coming up. Especially as every student is supposed to attend a secondary school these days, being provided with uniforms and daily lunches. Officers are very motivated to control the attendance of learners. That probably means more learners in class with more different levels and needs.

To become well informed about the state of secondary education, the CDE presents the results of the KCSE since 2013. Looking to the graphic, we notice that the mean scores of Kwale County are rather low. Besides the dip in 2017, probably caused by failing to restore the wrong questions that year by the government, also the 2018 mean score (3,29) is below average. In her analysis the CDE among others talked about a lack of TSC teachers, low involvement of parents, low quality of teacher trainings and a shortage of staff, like QUASO’s. Also several school are poorl equipped for e.g. Math and Science.

To give more insight in the result the second graphic shows us how the number of learners is spread. over the scores (A-E). Most of them are in the D and D-sectors. That implicates that for them there is no further professional education. On national level more than 50% scored D or below. With a D+ or higher score a course for police officer is possible, for teacher training centers C- or higher is sufficient. The ones who want to study at a university have to score C+ or more.

Looking at the next table, it stands out that the number of girls among the candidates is increasing. This could be a positive sign. Or do we have to worry about boys who are dropping?