Alarm as millions waste away after KCSE exams Updated Wednesday, March 5th 2014 at 22:30 GMT +3 Tweet 0 Share 0 Alarm as millions waste away after KCSE exams. By MOSES MICHIRA Kenya: An estimated three million youths have wasted away in the last decade after sitting KCSE exams. Most of them are graduates who scored Cs and Ds, grades that condemn them to a life of misery. The huge numbers renew debate on the role of education in soaring poverty and crime levels. University of Nairobi researcher Joshua Kivuva notes that over 300,000 Form Four graduates miss places in universities and middle-level colleges every year, which translates to a low transition rate that complicates the unemployment crisis. “It is easy to see where they end up. They are in slums, on the streets... everywhere you look with nothing to do,” says Dr Kivuva, a political scientist. See Also: Identical twins top examination chart to maintain their closeness Professional courses His estimates of the ‘lost generation’ have been supported by various studies that have shown a majority of the youth neither find employment nor further education after completing Form Four. In the class of 2013 for instance, only 123,000 candidates attained the minimum grade required for admission to university. But even then, most of them would still not enroll for university education owing to limited spaces. More than 78,000 students scored Ds, the most common grade among the 445,000 candidates. Another 71,800 candidates managed D+ while 61,000 had C-. More than half of the candidates scored less than the average grade of C, and do not, therefore, qualify for any professional courses. Typically, technical and vocational institutions would arm these students who miss university admission with skills in courses such as engineering and plumbing. But dozens of these institutions have either been closed down or elevated to stir a major crisis for students who do not find places in universities. Kivuva blames the social crisis that the country is facing on wrong policies, whose focus has remained to enable students get white-collar jobs. The crisis has been exacerbated by the small number of vocational training colleges after the killing of polytechnics, and universities put up in their place. Cause of poverty “Developing economies need technical skills, which these polytechnics would provide but we have shut them down,” Kivuva observes, referring to the elevation of Kenya and Mombasa Polytechnics to universities. Kenya Polytechnic is now The Technical University of Kenya, while Mombasa Polytechnic was elated to become the Technical University of Mombasa. Kenya has only 1,000 institutions of higher education, including 47 universities, 755 youth polytechnics and teacher- training colleges. Lack of training opportunities in post-secondary education has been found to be a major cause of poverty.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 04:59:30 +0000
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