As many of you are already aware, in avoiding certain enemies of development who are intent on making my life hell on earth, many of whom reside in Mwisho wa Lami, I have, since mid-December, been hibernating in Kakamega, spending quality and quantity time with my lovely family. And I will be here until schools open, later on this month.
Even as I stay here trying to rest and keep myself off school matters, I was surprised when two weeks ago my phone could not stop ringing, on the day KCPE results were released. I also received tens of WhatsApp messages.
What surprised me was that the callers were not even students, nor were they parents of students who had had sat for the exams. They were not even grandparents. Not even aunts. They were just members of the public, strangers and people from neighbouring villages.
I told them off, by ignoring them. I was under no obligation to share with them any examination results. There were also those who went to school expecting to find a list of the performance pinned on the school notice board. I had instructed Alex, who is the acting acting HM not to post the results. And no, acting acting is not a typo. You know I am acting HM, so when Alex is standing in for me, does he not become the acting acting HM?
Because of my firm stand, some people started saying that we were afraid to share because we had failed the exams. Nothing can be farther from the truth. We did not fail. But before I make a comment on how we performed; I want to take this opportunity to give six reasoned reasons why we declined to share the examination results with the public. Here we go.
Results are Private. Any results, whether medical or academic, are private results that are only handed over to the patient or student. Every student had a unique number - called an Index number - and it is unethical to start splashing their results for every other person to view. That is why we are only giving the exam results to the students who sat for the examinations. Or their parents.
Examination Body. For those who are new in Damascus, sorry Kenya, I wish to remind everyone that we have a fully-funded national examination body. It is called the Kenya National Examinations Council - KNEC. It administers national examinations and is the only body mandated – and paid - to announce and give out examination results. Not teachers, not heads.
I would compare KNEC to IEBC, the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission. They are the only one mandated to announce winners of political contests. I will therefore not try to compete with KNEC by releasing parallel examination results. Imagine if every candidate in the general elections announced their results. There would be anarchy! That is why I am leaving the role of announcing publicly our performance to the statutory body that is mandated – and paid – to do this – KNEC!
Teachers are not candidates. I need to once again make it clear to everyone that I am only a teacher, so are my colleagues at Mwisho wa Lami. We were not candidates and did not sit for KCPE. We just guided and prepared the students for the exams. I say this because some enemies of development have been spreading fake news, that we teachers performed poorly and should be transferred. I have never heard such nonsense!
My best comparison to this situation is the recently completed World Cup. Since Argentina won the World cup, everyone has been praising Messi for leading the team to glory. They say he and the players were brilliant. No one remembers the teacher, sorry the coach of the Argentine team. It is the same case here; KCPE results, whether good or bad, belong to the students, and they take any glory or shame. I did not sit for the exams, I had no index number, and I will neither take any glory nor will I be shamed.
Exam performance is not my KPI. As you know, the Teachers Suffering Centre, commonly known as the TSC, our employer, implemented a robust performance management regime for us teachers and heads. We have crisp clear Key Performance Indicators against which we are measured. Guess what?
A school’s KCPE performance is not of those things against which we are measured. Not at all! So, those saying that we should be fired are misplaced in their thinking and malicious. In any case, where have they seen the results to say that we failed? Or rather, that students failed?
Public Portal. Although we will not be releasing the results to just anyone, I would like to remind the general public that the results of every candidate are fully available on a public portal. Like the recent General Elections, where all results were published on a public portal and you could just open a website to see how your candidate performed, the same applies to KCPE. All the results are available on a public portal and all you need to do is send the students index number followed by KCPE to the SMS Code 20076, and you will instantly get the results.
No one has stopped you from checking the results of all our students and then proceeding to do your own analysis and extrapolation, depending on your statistical prowess. Please, however, note that even if you did that, those would still be merely provisional results. The final results can only be released by KNEC, not you!
Education is more than just exams. At Mwisho wa Lami Primary school, we take care of the learners’ all-round needs. From mental to physical, from spiritual to social, from psychological to behavioural. KCPE performance is just a small part of the mental capacity of the learners. It does not define who they are. Not at all. We consider much more than KCPE.
Because of these six solid reasons, there are those who are spreading fake news and unfounded rumours that our school did no perform well. Nothing can be further from the truth. Without going into details of how we performed, I wish to let everyone know that for the first time ever, our school will be having 100% transition to secondary school. This is a huge milestone that is attributable to my steadfast leadership of this school, leadership that this school had been lacking for long.
As I wish everyone a Happy 2023, I promise you that this 2023 is the year when we will do it again; much better. And for the avoidance of doubt, it will not be about KCPE, but in all the aspects of every learner’s sphere!
