MPs debating Bill on schools’ ranking

Members of Parliament now want to entrench the ranking of schools in the statute law to make it mandatory and not a matter of the discretion of the Cabinet Secretary.

If a Bill tabled in the National Assembly by Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa is passed, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) will be required to develop a structure through which the criteria for school ranking will be determined.

Former Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi abolished the ranking of schools last year citing unfair competition, unnecessary pressure on candidates to pass as opposed to acquiring the requisite knowledge, cheating due to pressure to pass among other vices.

But MPs appear to be keen on reversing Kaimenyi’s directive and are now seeking to anchor ranking of schools in the statute law to make it a mandatory exercise.

“Ranking of schools in not anchored anywhere in the National Examination Council Act. We need to put it in law,” said Wamalwa.

In the Kenya National Examinations Council Amendment Bill sponsored by MP Chris Wamalwa, MPs seek to introduce a clause in Section 10 of the KNEC Act making ranking part of the functions of the council.

It also seeks to compel the examination council to make rules that govern ranking of institutions based on their performance.

“They have to give regulations such as ranking national schools on their own and county schools on their own remove unfair competition,” added Wamalwa.

This, according to Wamalwa, will give meaning to teachers performance contracts as well as assisting the government in allocation of resources on need basis.

“How will we know which teacher has performed well if not through the results of their schools? It will also be easy to identify schools that need more attention in terms of resources because it is all about infrastructure.”

The Bill has gone through its first reading in the National Assembly and could pass all the necessary stages before the release of the 2015 KCSE results, by which time Wamalwa hopes the law would have taken effect.