MWALIMU ANDREW: Bensouda disowns current KCPE class

Those of you who were with me last year know how we performed in the KCPE exams, when we garnered a mean score of 197.4; out of 500.

This may look like a poor performance, but once you consider the long electioneering period we had last year and its disruption to the schooling calendar, you will begin to appreciate the results we posted last year.

Secondly, once everybody remembered that we were the second best school this side of the Sahara, congratulatory messages started flowing in to the teachers and pupils of Mwisho wa Lami Primary School.

BAD JOB

Except from Bensouda, the female headmistress.

“I am not proud of these results and will not join those celebrations,” she said in her first meeting of the term, back in January.

“I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that we did a good job. We all did a bad job, led by your so-called deputy who was firmly in charge of academic performance.”

“You have a point, madam headmistress,” I started. “But you cannot ignore the challenges we all faced last year.”

“Every school faced the same challenges, Dre," she said, silencing me. “Or you want to say only Mwisho wa Lami had their school used as a polling station?”

“We must do better this time, we must!” she shouted, banging the table.

I nodded, and committed to put in place measures to ensure that we do well this year.

“I will review the timetable, draw up a revision timetable and do benchmarking with other, well performing schools…” I said.

“Stop it, Dre,” Bensouda interrupted. “I have heard those promises year in year out, yet the results remain shameful.”

FOCUSSED

She went on: “Having been in this school for about six years now, I can confidently say that we now have students who carry my DNA,” she said. “For that reason, I will be taking over Class Eight as their sponsor, and you will see the results we will post this year.”

She started off first term with a bang; she reviewed the Class Eight timetable; reassigned teachers, picking those considered experienced; started coming to school very early and leave very late to ensure teachers turned up for preps.

She did this for the first week of first term, and all teachers adhered because they were sure it wouldn't last long.

“Wacha tuone kama atafika hata February,” said Sella.

“I know Bensouda,” said Kuya. “When she wants something, she gets it done. I am sure she will remain focused until the end of the year, so let’s be ready.”

“Wacha zako I have worked with Bensouda before,” said Mrs Atika. “The laziest person you will ever meet in the world.”

Kuya’s defence of Bensouda was not surprising, as he was keen to be deputy, and every evening, he would sit with Bensouda in the office for long, discussing other teachers.

LAZY

All the teachers told Kuya off, insisting that they knew how lazy Bensouda was, and were quite sure she would get tired soon.

They were not wrong, by mid-February, we were back to business as usual, with Bensouda herself not appearing at school, and no teacher appearing for preps.

She told Kuya to ensure teachers appear for preps, but every teacher told him off.

“Kama unatafuta promotion hatutakusaidia,” said Sella, who was clear that she wouldn't go the extra mile to help someone be promoted.

“By the way Kuya, bootlicking Bensouda will not help you get promoted. Just go to university like all of us are doing.”

We went for the rest of first term without preps, and with many teachers missing classes, particularly Class Eight.

Towards the end of first term, through Kuya, Bensouda suggested that we organise for April holiday tuition. Most teachers told Kuya they would not come.

Kuya did not know what to do, and as expected, he reported us to Bensouda. Bensouda called for a staff meeting.

‘HOLIDAY TUITION IS A CRIME’

“I don’t know if any of you have heard of performance management that the TSC is implementing,” she said. “We will all be measured on how our school performs.”

She went on: “I will not tolerate poor results anymore! If you don’t want to come for holiday tuition, then you better start getting another school where the headmaster is not concerned about performance.”

She went around asking everyone to confirm whether they would come for tuition or not.

Lean and Nzomo were first to be asked and they accepted. I was the third one.

“I don’t mind holiday tuition; in fact, I like it,” I started. “But I don’t want to commit a crime, especially with Dr Fred Matiang’i as the Security Minister.”

After that, every teacher said they did not want to commit an illegality, inasmuch as they wanted good performance.

MOCK EXAMS

Everything went back to normal, that is classes going unattended, and no preps being done. Until a few weeks ago when Bensouda announced that she had organised mock exams for the candidates. Two days later, she came with exam papers and for three days we administered these to the candidates.

“I will not allow you to mark as you are biased,” she said after the exams. “I want an objective person to do it so that I can know how we are likely to fair in KCPE exam.”

It looks like the results were not good, as she arrived in school last Tuesday breathing fire. “I cannot associate myself with such performance,” she said. “How can we have a mean score of 180.9?”

We told her that it was possible the people who marked were very strict, but she refused.

“I can’t wait for my class to get to Class Eight, the students that joined class one the same year as I came,” she said. I reminded her that those students would be in Class Eight next year.

“Yes, that will be my class and you will see,” she said. “They will do better than these good for nothing ones you people brought here. I don’t see any one of them getting above 200 marks.”