Every worker wants to produce stellar performance because it comes with glory and appreciation.
However, many workers do not appreciate work ethic, denying them honour before man and the Higher Power.
In the 2019 KCPE and KCSE exams, the number of attacks on teachers accused of producing weak grades went gone up.
Bearing the brunt of this restlessness and hunger for good grades are the junior schools that, unfortunately, are beset by lack, from facilities to qualified teachers.
Although the government has barred untrained teachers from classrooms by insisting on the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) registration, some schools survive on contraptions for lab equipment while tutors lack motivation due to poor employment terms.
Some graduate teachers on Board of Management employment take home a paltry Sh,5000 a month while parents and guardians demand nothing but A-plain or direct university entry grade.
However, there are a few teachers who are outliers and deliver top grades, the pay notwithstanding. That’s A-plain performance and they deserve immeasurable honour.
While there is a greater expectation to produce excellent results, school heads and teachers alone cannot be blamed for low grades in examinations.
Everybody in a school community is responsible for results posted. In the exercise of free will, restraint, meaningful engagement, and harmonious relationship are good for progress of junior schools. Not threats. Not attacks.
Sometimes it is the shortage of the much needed infrastructure or even teaching aid. In fact, it is most unfair that junior schools are expected to compare with others that have existed for more than 50 years, the chasms between them completely ignored.
The best for junior schools is to walk them at the right pace instead of demanding leaps and bounds in an environment of eerie bereftness.
In extreme cases, junior school students suffer from loss of interest in learning, partly aided by the unwelcoming environment.
And, although there are late bloomers, majority of the students who join these schools did not perform well in primary school examinations.
Listen to Andy: “My father really wanted me to become a doctor and I would study hard. The challenge was, nothing would stick in my brain.” Nonetheless, Andy is now an accomplished artisan who has a car to his name, having identified his strength although the father wanted to make him a medic.
Parents ought to monitor learners from Day One and be able to appreciate their abilities and weaknesses, help them to improve, and, with the help of teachers, prepare them for right career.
Waiting for the day national exam results are released to humiliate the teacher and, by extension, the candidate is a misstep by the parent or guardian.
Without suggesting that exam cheating is an option, the sustained pressure on teachers to produce top grades can catalyse the desire to compromise on exam sanctity.
Dissatisfied people should channel grievances through the school’s Board of Management instead of threatening to report the ‘non-performing’ teachers to the employer or hurt them.
Because abilities come in different forms, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha was spot-on when he said students who score low grades should be allowed to study without prejudice.
Every school process should refine the learner and put them on a higher rung to success and self-awareness.
Some teachers, unfortunately, have neglected the learner, claiming they are spending a lot of energy on ”children whose parents are not in any way related to me”.
Such teachers should know they have a contract with the taxpayer to make the learner better. That is the reason they are paid.
In all this, the Ministry of Education ought to rein in this sadistic behaviour through regular visits and tighter monitoring that should, among other corrections, take the teacher back to class for refresher courses.
Disputes, dissatisfactions and similar incidents abound but solutions come through regular reviews, not using the exam results to claim something was wrong.
During the release of the 2019 KCSE results, Prof Magoha cited prejudice because many learners who scored below 200 marks in their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams got university-entry grades by sheer grit and resolve.
In more developed societies, there is a new push toward upskilling. Just identify an area of interest like technical skills, communication skills, IT, managerial skills, artisanship — name it — and go for relevant courses that make you fit for the labour market.
Good results require a collaborative effort and a commitment where every shareholder and stakeholder is managing their beats with demonstrable verve, splendour, discipline. That is the A-plain commitment that produces many A-plains in examinations. It is possible.
