Raila Odinga wants talks held with all educations stakeholders citing the bone of contention being a low number of those who sat for 2017 K.C.S.E joining public universities.
In a statement on Thursday, Raila underscored that he is perturbed by, “the high number of students that are failing to make the transition to university.”
“The overall number of candidates with minimum university entry qualification, Grade C+ and above stands at only 11.38. Close to 90 per cent of the KCSE candidates have failed.
Only 70,073 candidates obtained university entry mean grade of C+ this year. There were just 142 As.
The number of candidates who scored A minus this year was 2,714 compared to 4,645 in 2016.
In 2016, some 88,929 students attained university entry mean grade of C+.
With the statistics, the opposition chief said that, “This is very worrying. Our country needs skilled manpower to achieve its ambitious growth goals. Making the transition from high school to university is a significant, though not the only step, towards the realization of those national goals.”
He said the country needs to have discussion over the issue since the days ahead require skilled manpower.
“As a society, we must listen to the cries of the candidates, the parents and teachers’ unions on this matter and have a serious conversation about this worrying trend of very low transition to university that has been witnessed in recent years.
Our country demands it, we must not give up on our children,” concluded his statement.
He congratulated the candidates, praising the girls for their outstanding performance.
“The girls have continued with their good run and I encourage them to stay the course.”
He also lauded the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) led by Prof George Magoha for reduced cases of cheating.
“We recognize the improvements at the Kenya National Examination Council that have seen a reduction in cheating and speedy release of results.”