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At the end of the seventh grade, students in Kenya are required to take the Certificate of Primary Education Examination (CPE), which is used as a selection instrument to determine whether students will be allowed to continue an academic course of education at the secondary school level. While the full range of subjects in the primary school curriculum includes 15 subjects, only 5 of these are covered in the CPE. The examination covers achievement in English and mathematics, and includes a general paper dealing with three subjects: science, history, and geography. A study was made to show that the omission of other subjects from the CPE makes teachers and learners in the schools consider the omitted subjects as unimportant for teaching and learning. Teachers are inclined to give less attention to the teaching of these subjects and the learners do not take them seriously and lose interest in them. These under-emphasized or ignored subjects are important to the development of a well-rounded individual, and many students are hampered in opportunities to choose careers that do not require excellence in the subjects covered by the CPE. (JD)

an: ED248223; docTypes: Reports - Research; pubTypes: Report;