Parents urge action after Chingondi Primary’s dismal KCPE results

Parents with children at Bomet County's Chingondi Primary School, where the best-performing candidate scored 110 marks in the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams, have appealed to the government to investigate the reasons for the poor showing.

They want the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to address the root cause of the problem and provide a remedy for learners, who now risk discrimination as they transition to secondary school.

This comes as reports emerged that the leading candidate did not score 137 marks as earlier indicated but 110, with the second-best student posting 107 followed by another with 106. The last pupil had 44.

“As parents and guardians, we want the government to look into the matter and assure learners that they will re-sit the exams, the papers will be re-marked or they will be allowed to repeat Standard Eight when schools reopen,” Mr Wilfred Bii said.

The pupils, he said, should not be condemned.

Most of the parents feared that the learners would not join good schools or may choose not to continue their studies altogether.

The pupils claimed that they had not adequately covered the syllabus in most of the subjects.

“We had no problem with English and Kiswahili coverage of the syllabus, but the other subjects were a major challenge,” said a candidate who spoke to the Nation.

It also emerged that the math teacher for the examination class was from the lower primary section. One of the senior teachers was also accused of giving too much attention to a private school he operates in a neighbouring location at the expense of pupils at the public school.

Due to the low number of Teachers Service Commission (TSC) teachers at the school, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) employed two temporary instructors.

Because there were only 17 registered candidates, they sat the KCPE teats at nearby Kipsiwon Primary School.

An iron-sheet gate leading to Chingondi Primary remained closed, with the compound deserted since the results were released. Unlike other schools with clear and prominently displayed signage at the entrance, the only signs that the site is a school are inscriptions on a wall of the administration block.

On one side stand five brick-and-mortar classrooms with the administration block, which was constructed with Constituency Development Fund (CDF) cash.

On the other side are timber-walled classrooms with mud floors and a rusty iron-sheet roof. A 10,000-litre water tank sits nearby and collects rainwater from the roof.

The school in Mutarakwa ward, Bomet Central constituency, is 14 years old and the 2021 candidates were the sixth class to sit the KCPE exams.