EnglishKenyaPAL Network
I will begin this discourse by a brief narration of my childhood experience as a class two pupil. Mrs. Ndungu, my class teacher, engaged us in learning exercises that often attracted punishment. We feared her a lot, and we believed that some of her punishments lacked basis. One morning, she ordered the whole class to stand up, and each pupil was given a paper and a pen. She instructed us to write our names and forward the paper to her. “When I read your name from the paper you have handed in, you can sit down,” Mrs. Ndungu said in a tone that left everybody shaken. “What could be her intention?” I whispered silently. No one understood her intentions. I heaved a sigh of relief and sat down when she eventually read my name.
Two pupils (a boy named Kariuki and a girl named Margaret) remained standing when everybody else had sat down. Mrs. Ndungu asked, “Why is a boy still standing when I have two papers remaining that bear the same name Margaret?” In an apparent reference to Kariuki, she asked, “Did you copy her work?” Kariuki was unable to answer the teacher, and out of fear and shame, he could not dare stare at the stunned classroom. Coincidently, Kariuki had sat next to Margaret in what confirmed that he could have copied Margaret’s work due to his inability to write his name.
As expected of Mrs. Ndungu, Kariuki received a thorough beating for his failure to undertake the simple task. The exercise proved that Kariuki was a slow learner. But there was something else: Kariuki was 4-6 years older than the rest of us and quite masculine. None of us could dare mock or ridicule him for his weakness. Kariuki’s experience brings to the fore some fundamental questions on the importance of adhering to government policy on the right age for a grade. Does age have a bearing on a student’s learning outcome? What age should our children start schooling to optimize on learning outcomes? Is it recommendable to delay or hasten the age of school entry? This paper has attempted to answer the questions.
In Kenya, the Ministry of Education’s (MOE’s) guidelines dictate that a child should start schooling at the age of 6 and complete the primary schooling cycle in class 8 at the age of 13. However, age-related advantage/disadvantage in learning outcomes has been debated for long among scholars, teachers, parents and policymakers. The relationship between age and performance is complex, and may be influenced by other factors: they include whether school entry occurs at the official starting age, the student’s cognitive development at the time of school entry, prior learning opportunities that affect progression through the grades, as well as instructional practices in response to student diversity (Hungi et al., 2014).
The choice of either being under- or over-age has a significant implication on learning outcomes. To demonstrate this, we use data from Uwezo surveys collected in 2015 in Kenya. The survey assessed children aged 6-16 years in English, Math, and Kiswahili based on class 2 syllabus. In this article, we used English and Math to assess numeracy and literacy competencies respectively among pupils in class 3 to 8. In English, a pupil is considered to be competent in literacy if he/she can read a story while in Math, a pupil is deemed to be competent in numeracy if he/she can solve a multiplication problem. A detailed description of the Uwezo surveys is provided in Jones et al. (2014). For each grade, we compared the two competencies among the under, right and over-aged pupils. A pupil is considered under-age if his/her age is two years younger than the right age of that grade while an over-aged pupil is the one whose age is above by two years relative to the right age of that grade. Uwezo results show that among children in grades 3 to 8, about 6.9% are under- age, 42.4% are over- age, and 50.7% are at the right age for grade. These results are disaggregated further by grades and Tables 1 and 2 present their respective profiles in learning competencies at each grade level (grade 3-8).
Figure 1 shows the competence levels in English where the competence level is computed at each grade. The results show higher competence rates among right-age grade children compared to the other two groups (under-age and over-age). For instance, among grade 3 children, about 47% of the right age-grade pupils can read a story compared to 33% and 28% of over- and under-aged children respectively. It is instructive to note that while the differences between right-aged children and the other two groups narrow down as the children progress to grade 8, the differences in competence levels are significant from grade 3 to grade 7. The narrowing competences among the three groups of pupils at grade 8 could be attributed to the fact that they were tested on class 2 syllabus. We strongly believe that the differences would be wider and statistically significant if the tests were based on their respective grade syllabus.
Figure 2 presents competence levels in numeracy (math) among children from grade 3 to 8. As was evident in literacy, numeracy competence levels are higher among right age-grade pupils compared with the under-aged and over-aged pupils. Among children in grade 3, about 52% of the right-age grade pupils can solve a multiplication problem compared to 45% and 31% of over and under-age children respectively. The gap is widest at grade 3 and narrows down as the children progress to grade 8 as a result of improved capacity to handle class 2 work among pupils in higher grades. The difference in numeracy competencies between the right-aged and over-aged is significant for children in grades 3 to 6. There is a significant variation in numeracy competencies across the grade range (grade 3 to 8) between over- and under-age children.
These findings corroborate other studies focusing on the complex relationship between age and performance, and the influence of different socio-economic and demographic factors on a pupil’s performance. However, in developed countries, over-aged pupils perform better than the other pupils due to maturity-related advantage while in developing countries, younger students perform better than older students (Hungi et al, 2014). For instance, a study in Botswana showed that among grade 6 pupils, over-aged pupils were three times less likely to solve a math problem compared to right-aged pupils in the same grade (Hungi et al, 2014). In Malawi, younger pupils in grade 7 outperformed their older colleagues in English literacy, Chichewa (a local language) and mathematics (Kunje et al., 2009).
Delays in school entry and grade repetition are the two main causes of over-aged pupils. In Kenya, particularly in the arid areas, delays in school entry is caused by lack of schools. In such environments, young children are delayed to join school because they cannot walk for long distances. Although grade repetition has been banned in Kenya, it is a common practice in many schools. Weak students in the classes preceding class 8 (usually classes 5, 6, and 7) are advised to repeat a grade due to the emphasis on high mean scores. It is done on the notion that repetition could improve learning outcomes among pupils.
However, grade repetition has a negative effect on pupils’ performance. It can lead to overcrowding in classrooms and overstretch the available resources which make it difficult even for the able pupils to learn. Grade repetition does not guarantee improved learning outcomes. For instance, the 2012 Monitoring Learning Achievement project for Malawi found that pupils who had repeated at least one grade scored significantly lower than those who had never repeated a grade (Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of Malawi, 2014). Pupils who repeat grades end up frustrated and drop out of school. The phenomenon of school drop-out results in a significant wastage of government and school resources.
The findings indicate that age has a significant bearing on a pupil’s learning outcomes. Right-age grade pupils report better scores than under- and over-aged pupils. The under-aged children are the most disadvantaged among the two groups. The results have important policy implications, and they underpin the need for parents to enroll pupils in school at the right age. The findings should compel the education authorities to reinforce the existing no-repetition policy to help reduce incidences of grade repetition in the education system. A collaboration between education authorities and stakeholders such as parents, teachers, school boards and community leaders (chiefs and religious leaders) can lead to effective implementation of the policy. Education authorities should sensitize the stakeholders on the problems associated with grade repetitions which lead to over-aged pupils.
The findings also have implications for further studies because the presented results only show the differences based on age. They do not illuminate the effect of other variables on a pupil’s performance in school. Such variables encompass social and demographical factors such as gender, household social, economic status, type of school (e.g., private/public), mothers education, geographical locality (urban-rural). We believe that the competency gaps may widen more in favor of pupils from privileged households. More rigorous statistical procedures can be used in further studies to assess the marginal impact of different socio-economic and demographic factors on pupil’s competencies against the three school entry age groups.
References
- Hungi, N., Ngware, M., and Abuya, B. (2014). ‘Examining the impact of age on literacy achievement among grade 6 primary school pupils in Kenya.’ International Journal of Educational Development, 39, 247–259.
- Jones, S., Schipper, Y., Ruto, S. and Rajani, R. (2014). Can your child read and count? Measuring learning outcomes in East Africa. Journal of African Economies, 23(5):643–672.
- Kunje, D., Selemani-Meke, E., Ogawa, K., 2009. An investigation of the relationship between school and pupil characteristics and achievement at the basic education level in Malawi? Journal of International Cooperation in Education 12 (1) 33–49.
- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Malawi. (2014). Monitoring Learning Achievement in Primary Education Malawi Report. Malawi Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Malawi.