Thread by @Onjerika

Dear Kenyans. 876,416 kids took the #KCSE2022. Only 173,345 of them attained the passing grade of C+ and above. Do we realize that this is a 19.8% pass rate? Do we further realize that the KCSE is actually a basic exam testing the most basic of concepts a child... 1/n

should understand in order to be a productive member of our society? Do we realize that the pass rate has not been higher than 30% in decades? Do we see that this means that we have been undereducating 70-80% of our population for decades? 2/n

Do we see the problem here or understand that our pass rate should be 60+% because the only real resource we have in this country is people and every person who is not adequately equipped to understand the working of life or innovate is a person we have probably...3/n

relegated to a life of low productivity? And that this, along with corruption, is a key reason that we as a country are not getting anywhere fast? That a country looking to leapfrog development would be aiming for at least a 60% pass rate and would structure its education ...4/n

system around making every individual hit their potential then applying those minds to solution making & innovation? For how long are we going to frame the low #KCSE pass rate as a case of lazy children and instead understand that the same government 5/n

that is keen to tell us every year about how it curbed cheating with guns in schools, is the same guy responsible for educating this failing 80% and that KCSE is to basic a learning threshold for us to not ask, and vehemently, 'Are 80% of brains in this country... 6/n

unable to grasp photosynthesis OR are you, Mr. Government, not actually doing your job'.

Dear Kenyans, something has to change. We need to start re-examining some of these our beliefs. They are not helping us.

Thank you for attending my #TedTalk. Ni hayo tu kwa sasa.../n

Use the link below to access #KCSEResults database 2009-2022. I also added a column showing the % if everyone who can join #TVET is include i.e. C- and up (although some sources say should be D and above). The passrate is still under 50%. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… (may have errors)

The rows I have highlighted show the handover between Kaimenyi and Matiang'i. The latter was so obsessed (from my view) with the eradication of cheating that during his tenure, he significantly (and I believe, artificially) depressed the passrate...

He gained a lot of political good will for this from Kenyans who saw him as a no-nonsense savior of education, to the detriment of candidates who undertook KCSE during his reign. He simply moved on to bigger and better jobs. We need to realize that short sighted govts...

have real incentives for excluding as many citizens from higher levels of education as possible.
1. Fewer citizens who are educated enough to vote critically
2. Lower demand for the creation of formal jobs and therefore lower pressure on the govt. to ensure economic development

3. A platform off of which to tout self reliance e.g. entrepreneurship as the salvation of Kenya without having to ensure that the citizenry have the business skills, life/world understanding or capital to succeed i.e. blame your inability to work hard/think smart if you fail.

Someone asked for a comparison with other countries. Many do not have a national exam like we do. And their content is not exactly comparable. But here are the latest results from the Cambridge AS level exams (graded A to E like ours to a bit comparable)...

These are broken down by subject (sadly) but run down the C grade column and see that on average, more than 50% of those who sit most of the subjects pass most of the topics. Some subjects the passrate is as high as 80%.

Sorry, these are Cambridge A levels (which are a step from 8-4-4 btw). Some examples of passrates: Biology (70.8%), Mathematics (75.4%), English (70.2%), Geography (75.8%), Business (56.7%), Chemistry (72.7%), History (52.4%), Physics (71%), Literature (54.2%). #Kenya, ni kubaya.

Btw, when we say a candidate scored a C+, we mean that they managed to master just over half of the material taught to them. See the overall grading system below (note that each subject does have its grading system though so this example in illustrative). E.g In Physics...

candidates will pass if they master about 35% of the material. My point is, our pass threshold is relatively low. And therefore, we should be WORRIED that 80% of people who undertook #KCSE2022 could not attain that threshold.

The general grading system for #KCSE2022 was as follows:

Grade A in the subjects is 12, A- (minus) is 11; B+ (10), B plain (9), B- (8), C+ (7), C plain (6), C- (5), D+ (4), D plain (3), D- (2) and E (1).

Another question: if you didn't master significant more than half of the material in a lower level education, how likely are you to be successful in a higher, tougher level of education (controlling for specialization in areas of highest strength)?

Another reflection: one of the difficulties of trying to have a discussion with tweeps about education is how strongly they feel that their hard work brought them through the #KCSE. They were hard working, everyone else who failed was lazy. Sha. Look, I scored an A in KCSE in...

2004. The only subject I did not get an A was Kiswahili. I had a B+. I believe everyone in my class had a C+ and above. It was a private school. We had 2 science labs, a computer lab and a library. Classes were no larger than 40. Our teachers had masters degrees. I worked HARD...

e.g studied 20 hours every weekend. But I also had access to some of the best educational resources in this country and have a memory that favors cramming. I did not get where I got purely on my effort. Those who did not do get there were just not lazy.

They were not as advantaged or well taught. Other people demanding educational justice for themselves does not devalue your own education or effort. You are functioning on a scarcity mentality, instead of seeing others as potential collaborators who can build you and the nation.