The Evaluation Dilemma in Kenya Education System

Abstract

Kenya strives to achieve Education for All (EFA) in order to contribute to various developmental endeavour Like any country she has national goals of education that reflect the prevailing needs for which the offered education should aim at addressingThrough e valuationa nation isinformedon the performance of the education system and its output s. Given this critical role the evaluation system should be accurate, credible, and realistic in providing data to advise the stakeholders on the quality, efficiency, effectiven ess, competency and reliability of both the system and products .Kenyan education has since colonial period relied on summative evaluation as the standard measure for judging an awarding grades and certificates to its products. Bearing in mind that Kenyan society attaches a lot of value to grades and certificates the two are determining factorsfor quality products . They predetermine the academic and profession destinyof the products. Notwithstanding th is approach the summative evaluation system in Kenya has high potential ofanomalies regarded as examinationirregularities. Due to this many stakeholders are left wondering and questioning how much confidence should continueto be entrustedin the system. Many questionsarise such as what could be the alternative strategiesfor gauging the product’sperformance in the event of lack of confidence in the summative evaluation ?Whichbest approaches can gauge learning achievements in a schooling system? The paper hopes to address the two questions by conceptualizingthe meaning of Education and evaluation, analysing its function, criterion ,and standards upon which evaluation isjudged