BWIRE: High KCSE failure rate locks out generation from higher learning and life success

In Kenya, the KCSE examination is not just an academic assessment; it is a life-defining filter /FILE

Being an African youth is already a profound struggle. Education has long been presented asthe great equaliser, the ladder out of poverty and exclusion. In Kenya, however, that ladderis being made unnecessarily steep through a seemingly difficult assessment.

Which mother deliberately creates an environment in which her children are destined tofail? A caring mother nurtures, supports and corrects gently, ensuring that even when achild stumbles, the path forward remains visible.

The Kenyan state, our mother nation,should reflect on the conditions it creates for her youth. When our examinations aredesigned in ways that overwhelmingly produce failure, the message sent is that ofabandonment, and not guidance.

A nation that truly loves its children, its treasured humancapital, does not test them beyond the limits of their circumstances but it ideally equipsthem to succeed.

If Kenya truly sees its youth as its greatest resource, then our outgoing andemerging education examination system must resemble a nurturing home, one thatchallenges, protects, uplifts and prepares its young people to thrive, and not be prematurelywritten off, like many in the cohort that just completed the Kenya Certificate of SecondaryEducation examination.

The stages of academic life for a Kenyan child from school going age to 18 is primary school,secondary school, then a tertiary institution, preferably a university. 

This already is one of the structural ways the government raises hopes forcandidates to go to a university after their exams. But the reality is only a small populationof candidates join a university in Kenya.

Although nearly 250,000 of them qualify foruniversity education, many barriers, including poverty and need to take up familyresponsibilities, despite student loans, mean that a smaller number actually reportand complete their studies.

Historically, also, Tvets were not widely embraced in Kenya, and to this day, manyemployers continue to favour degree-holders over technical and vocational graduatesdespite growing skills gaps.

So why can’t the government ease up on the KCSE exam, allowing more students pass, resultingin higher enrollment in their preferred institutions, universities both at home and abroad? Whycondemn most of your citizens to failure anyway? Doesn’t this just encourage the cycle ofpoverty?

Education policy should be anchored in human development, not exclusionarygatekeeping that continues our cycle of poverty, especially in the era of a very uncertainmultilateral landscape.

In Kenya, the KCSE examination is not just an academic assessment; it is a life-defining filter.It determines access to higher education, professional pathways, and often, dignity.

Whenexams are so difficult that they systematically lock out the majority of students, our governmentand those responsible for establishing those levels and determining marks, must ask themselvesquestions such as exactly what national purpose does this exam serve?  Many parents have saidthe grades their children have gotten do not directly correspond with their results over their highschool years.

Reducing the difficulty of our national exams does not mean lowering standards. Rather, itmeans aligning the current assessment with the actual lived realities of learners, many ofwhom study under severe constraints such as overcrowded classrooms, under-resourcedschools, undertrained teachers, untrained teachers, hunger, insecurity and long walkingdistances to and from school.

Expecting global-level performance from the majority of Kenyancandidates operating in unequal conditions is both unrealistic and unjust.If more students were enabled to pass the KCSE exam meaningfully, university enrolment wouldprobably rise, skills development would expand and ultimately Kenya’s human capitalwould be strengthened.

Granted, technicians and those with other vocational skill sets are goingto be in the highest demand but lets not exaggerate the genuine benefits of Tvets, because non-degree certificates, in my view, do not make our citizens as competitive internationally, althoughthey may be very good locally.

And no, a university degree is not overrated. So greatly woulda lighter and realistic KCSE be that even for those who do not pursue university education, betterresults would open doors to even more superior technical training, scholarships, and internationalopportunities. Education systems should be designed to ideally widen pathways, not narrowthem.

In many countries, higher education is viewed not as a privilege reserved for the crème de lacrème, but as a public good designed to uplift broad sections of society.

Condemning largenumbers of youth to academic failure only entrenches cycles of poverty, frustration anddisillusionment. These are the same disillusioned Kenyan youth who, burdened by exclusionand broken promises, pour into the streets with deep-seated bitterness whenever anopportunity to protest arises.

A country that sidelines its youth academically risks sideliningits future economically, socially and politically. Those responsible in government must, therefore, try to rethink KCSE exam assessment as an instrument of inclusion, hope, and nationaldevelopment.