Education systems, examination and failure: a case study of Kenyan teenagers in four schools

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article reports on a small case study of the impact of instructional materials on students, and the impact of high-stakes testing in Kenya on those who fail; who, because there is very limited employment, are potentially open to radicalisation. The setting is secondary schools in Kenya which, after the 1998 attacks by al-Quaeda and later inter- and intra-community conflicts during the 2008 election, has seen a resurgence in externally sponsored terrorism, this time from Al-Shabaab, with reports that Kenya youth were involved. The case study involved examinations of texts on government, history, politics and religion; interviews with directors, teachers and students at four secondary schools, based partly on scripts extracted from those texts. On the advice of the teachers, we included discussion of the literature the students were exposed to which addressed more directly issues of corruption, democracy, etc. We also had discussions with the Kenyan Institute for Curriculum Development.All groups of interviewees were concerned with growing radicalisation, and saw the examination system, which encouraged rote teaching and learning as against critical thinking and led to large numbers of failed students without any job skills in a precarious employment market, prone to inducements from Al-Shabaab.