NASA principals Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka and Isaac Rutto during the launch of the coalition's manifesto in Nairobi, June 27, 2017 [Photo: the-star.co.ke]Nasa coalition, if elected into to government on August 8, will abolish the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
The Raila-led Nasa has promised to scrap the Standard Eight examination and provide free secondary education to all children beginning September.
The decision to abolish KCPE exam, the coalition says in its manifesto, is aimed at ensuring that every child gets a place in secondary school.
It further says the aim will also be to arrest the high secondary school dropout rate.
“The culture and terminology of ‘failures’ and ‘dropout’ will be a thing of the past. No child should be condemned to this stigma by an examination whose only purpose is to eliminate those who it does not have school places for,” says Nasa says in its manifesto that was launched on Tuesday at Ngong Racecourse, Nairobi.
Nasa is also promising to throw out the Jubilee government's free laptop programme to children in lower primary which the coalition has been critical of terming it a misplaced priority.
Nasa is also promising to expand secondary school infrastructure with a target of closing the gap between primary school leavers and Form One places in the next five years.