A thin film of chalk dust has settled on the first row of tabes in the science laboratory on the ground floor. Wooden stools rest their thin metallic legs here and there across the cement floor; more are marooned at the end of the room, upturned, legs stabbing at the ceiling.

The escapades of King Herod, Prophet Elijah and sheep, both in the literal and Biblical sense, are frozen in time on the reying blackboard, echoing lessons of a class long dismissed. Here is where I set up to interview Mary*. The 45 year-old public school teacher carefully chooses her stool, swapping a tall wobbly one for a short sturdy one. It seems grounded and dependable, just like her. Mary has devoted close to 19 years of her service to a public school located in one of Nairobi’s bustling residential areas.

A lot has changed during these last two decades where Mary has served as a teacher. Perhaps the biggest change of all was the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in 2003. It gave many disadvantaged kids an opportunity they never had before. However, Mary has noted an obvious change in the dynamics of pupil enrollment at the school where she works. Most of the pupils used to come from high- to middle-class homes. Now, they are mostly middle- to low-income generating families.

“This affects how the children perform and even behave. In the first term, the bright ones are often afraid to shine. Nobody wants to be called a chopi (bright know-it-all),” Mary says. This is emblematic of a vicious circle that drives some of the financially-stronger students away from the public schools. Dr. Willis Otengah, a sociologist at Kenyatta University, points to the falling standards in public schools as the root cause of the flight. “Before free primary education, many parents took their children to reputable public schools in which they had confidence. Now parents are struggling to take to and keep their children in private schools, [and this is] driven by the deteriorating standards and performance in public schools,” he says.

Leila Ambetsa, a mother of three, echoes these sentiments, going on to add that because there are too many children in the class, the teachers often fail to concentrate on the pupils. “During school holidays, my nephew [an 11-year-old who attends a public school] is never assigned homework. And when I compare his handwriting to my daughter’s [seven-year-old who attends a private school], hers is much better,” she says.

Is this just a mother’s favoritism over her own child? Not according to the 2008 African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) paper on “Factors Associated with Low Achievement Among Students from Nairobi’s Urban Informal Neighborhoods”. The paper reveals that students in public schools score up to 48.3 fewer points than their peers in private informal schools.

Undoubtedly, the growing pressure on the public schools is starting to translate into a bigger gap between those who can afford a private school and those who can’t. When the KCPE results were announced earlier this year, over 55 percent of the graduating pupils failed to meet the entry grade to secondary school. This was followed by the discouraging reports of several pupils committing suicide after their hopes and dreams of escaping poverty through academic achievement were shattered.

One of the main challenges that public schools face is overcrowding in the classrooms. The average student to teacher ratio is now one to 45. A matter that Doreen, another public school teacher and administrator, believes has dramatically lowered performance standards. She feels that the Ministry of Education should be charged with the responsibility of levelling public and private education in such a way that individuals from the two are not so different from each other.

William Migwi, Principal Economist at the Ministry of Education, Management Information Systems, acknowledges that the ministry has to play its part, but that an increase in the number of teachers is only part of the solution. He says, “It may by employment of more teachers. Yes, the free primary education brought more students who need more teachers and KNUT (Kenya National Union of Teachers) is also looking to have more teachers employed. However, this problem is not necessarily because we have fewer teachers. Actual learning does not take place because a teacher has been posted somewhere. There are other factors involved. Is the teacher useful? Is he attending his classes? Does he or she have the required commitment? Do they have the necessary resources, both personal and otherwise? Are they being supervised in the right manner?”

So, do privately educated individuals stand a better chance at success beyond the classroom? Lina tends to agree. She’s been a teacher and head of a prep section in a renowned international school in Nairobi for 15 years. Lina states that privately-educated individuals stand out more—and are more competitive compared to their publicly-educated counterparts. Nonetheless, she strongly feels that the social divide between the private and public education sector can be bridged through teacher training programs. That is why Lina has created a program that aims to have teachers improve their teaching methodology in a way that will incorporate international standards and mould children into well-rounded individuals.“Teachers can be trained and empowered and, in turn, empower children right from their early stages,” she says. “There’s a lot that can be done. We do not have to wait for the government to intervene.”

And many teachers don’t. Mary is doing her part to bridge the gap between her students. At the close of the interview, pupils are starting to gather in the science laboratory for a “Life Skills” class. “Thankfully, children are flexible and have no boundaries. They get better as they move along,” Mary insists, hopefully.

*Not her real name.