Ranking enables smooth and healthy competitions among schools besides challenging students to work harder, a Kisii University don has said.
Speaking on Tuesday at a stakeholders meeting in the institution, Dr Stellah Omari urged the Ministry of Education to re-introduce ranking of schools in national examinations since it will make schools evaluate their performance in relation to others.
“I was shocked when ranking was abolished by the ministry. This will weaken our education system since schools will have no idea about their competitors’ performance,” she said.
She said the method has been used for so long and it had nothing to do with few cases of cheating in national exams that are sometimes witnessed.
“It is true that some institutions or candidates tend to cheat in national exams but this has nothing to do with ranking. The ministry got it all wrong,” she added.
She said existing laws that are meant to curb cheating which were introduced by the Late Makueni senator Mutula Kilonzo were enough to punish offenders and restore sanity in national examinations.
“I think we have enough laws that were introduced by Mutula Kilonzo and some other existing laws before him. They should be applied as a penalty to culprits. But abolition of ranking was purely ill advised,” she said.
She asked school heads to take responsibility in case of cheating in their institutions and asked invigilators to also be vigil to combat the menace.