For a long time, schools especially private ones have had the unfortunate habit of registering students they consider weak in other schools in order to retain only those looked at as capable of scoring high grades. From both a professional and moral point of view, this act is a violation of the social contract between the parent and the school. Some parents go to specific schools with a sole purpose of having their children get a certificate or pass slip of a specific school. This may be a family tradition where all go through this particular school. It may be a religious bias where a catholic parent isn’t comfortable with his child going to sit exams in a Muslim school or just a show of a social class. We have heard of parents who go out of their way to bribe in order to have their kids with scores below the cut off points, just to have their children get enrolled in a school of their choice.
Professionally, what message does the school send to the child and psychological distress he undergoes when his classmates get to look at him as dense? This erodes self-esteem and may affect the performance. It is hard to suddenly adapt to a new setting, the new school set up is likely to affect his concentration. The fact that these kids are transported daily to and fro the adhoc exam centre, it drains their energies and deprives them that last minute interaction with classmates or the final revision before the paper. All this will affect the performance.
The school’s role is to teach and equip the learner with all the necessary knowledge and skills to perform better, it is failure on its part if after 7 years of primary or 4 years of secondary, it has failed in its duty to achieve it. The school should be condemned not the child. The clamor for higher grades isn’t about academic excellence per-se, but the business sense it brings. Schools are now more of business entities than centres of imparting knowledge. Education excellence is a derived demand in their quest for numbers that make business sense. The more they post the pristine performance, the more attractive to parents yearning to have their children get good grades. There is an assumed linear coloration between good grades with good teaching. This may not necessarily be true, but not all parents are capable of analysing this. That is why some schools are over populated yet charging exorbitant school fees as opposed to others that are average performers though they impart wholesome education of both class and extra-curricular activities.
These high-fliers tend to register weak students in UPE schools in the belief that UPE schools are for the weak brains that can put up with failures or low grades. They even believe during marking, the UPE grading is given a special consideration. There is a story where a parent had two kids in the same school, the weak one was registered in a UPE school, the other was left registered at the main school. When results were out, the weak student had scored a good first grade and the bright one had scored a miserable second grade. Sometimes it is not about the day to day performance but the composure and preparedness of the student.
UNEB tough stance on this unfortunate habit must be applauded. Schools should respect the right of a weak student and the choice of a parent. Schools are paid school fees to teach both the weak and bright students, there is no reason for accepting fees of a weak student for 7 years, then you realise at the tail end that the student isn’t good enough for them. It is an absurdity. If they knew this student doesn’t measure to their high standards, then they should have discontinued him at a lower level, but because they are looking for numbers they keep the kid on the ability to pay basis.
There is also another bad habit by schools to grade streams according to brightness. Having streams ABCD, where the most bright are put in stream A and the subsequent grading portrays a reducing levels of brightness till stream D of the weakest. Psychologically, those in stream D are tormented which affects self-esteem and performance. It isn’t logical to bundle together weaklings without them interacting with bright classmates who may guide them during class work. This perpetuates the status quo. Learning is about coping from those around you not only book work.
The public display of test results may also demoralize the weak students, schools do it as away of shaming those poor performers, but in the end, it doesn’t achieve the desired effect. How does it feel to walk the school compound when everyone knows you are dense? Sometimes the weak in class have other talents outside, either they are good sportsmen, student leaders or debaters. This also kills those talents due to injured ego.
UNEB alone may not fight this habit, but it requires the concerted effort of school inspectors that should not only focus on infrastructure but also interact with students at every visit to schools. The school administrators always portray the good side of the institution. The student interaction would reveal the other bleak side.
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