RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION 0F SOCIO-ECONOMIC RESOURCES AND THE PERFORMANCE OF C.P.E. (A CASE STUDY OF GAITU SUB-LOCATION, MERU DISTRICT)

Abstract

It is impossible to live without being educated. In the sense that every individual has to meet the impact of the environment. Formal education is greatly uplifted in most societies and so ' the parents seek a vicarious satisfaction in the scholastic achievement of their children. Certificate of Primary Examination (C.P.E.) is very important for that matter in a country like Kenya. This is because it is the backbone to other higher examinations. The young are hence subjected to educational conditioning and competitive pressures in order to pass examinations. Hence education has now become an industry with children as the raw materials to be moulded into predetermined patterns like circus animals on which whips are cracked to make them perform in the arena of social approval. The school is a sorting process that begins at an early age allocating students through tests, grades and tracking the future placement in the occupational hierarchy. The school is therefore the’ ’traffic Police’’ for the prevailing division of labour in the social arena. Since C.P.E. is the first’ ’road block*’ to determining which hierarchy one will join it is very Crucial and this is why all the more the study has tried to unravel the stumbling block towards jumping this first 'road block' In order to attain social status. But it should be pointed out that passing C.P.E. perse will not give one social status if you do not get employment to get income; But social status depends on the society’s scale of judgement, that is different societies use different variables to rank people socially. These variables used to rank people socially also depends with time periods. Mkangi has also pointed out that it is not just acquisition of an 'education' which counts if one is to secure a job but rather the acquisition of a Qualificator education. Getting a certificate of primary education does not warrant you to get a job. That is C.P.E. may not qualify you to get a job, it may require you to be a little bit higher in the education pyramid.