KILIFI COUNTY’S PARENTS HAVE LOW INTEREST IN THEIR CHILDREN’S SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

It is now evident that schools which performed poorly in last year’s KCPE examination had very low attendance by parents. School Card Report 2013 sampled 5,000 schools and found that where parental responsibility was above average, there was a significant improvement in marks.

According to the report launched on 28^th May 2014 in Nairobi, Kilifi, Kitui, Kakamega, Mandera and Tana River are counties where parents have the lowest interest in the performance of their children.

Except for Kakamega, kilifi, Kitui,Mandera and Tana River had a  mean mark of  below 250 according to the recent KCPE results.

Top of the list of top performers, Kirinyaga County, had the highest number of parents taking a keen interest in their children’s education. In the same bracket were Nyeri, Makueni, Garissa, Baringo and Nyandarua.Where parents were actively involved in their children’s performance. A move which is of benefit, as all these counties had a mean mark of 250 and above out of a possible 500. Only Garissa had a mean mark of below 130.

The report also examines other factors that may affect a pupil’s performance. They include school safety and protection, access to textbooks and roles of children in school.

Mandera is the worst in school safety and protection. Other unsafe counties are Tana River, Kitui, Kilifi and Kwale.

The research also sampled the dropout rate in primary schools. It shows that more boys than girls abandon classes. Taita Taveta County has the largest number of boy dropouts who go out to mine.

Elgeyo Marakwet had the lowest dropout rate with only two per cent of boys dropping out of primary school.