SLC Online English Test: There was shock among Kenyans on Wednesday when the Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe announced that only 10 nurses out of 300 had passed an English test examination that was requirement for getting nursing jobs in the United Kingdom. Many people were surprised on how difficult the questions might have been.
According to a report that appeared in The Standard newspaper on Thursday, the 300 Kenyan nurses who sat for the test had 20 minutes to answer 60 multiple choice questions. “
According to the Standard, the questions included the following five multiple answer questions (It was however not clear if these five questions were part of the actual test or if they were a general sample the media house took):
1). My teacher_______ from the United Kingdom.
a).are
b). is
c). am
d). be
2). What’s _______ name?
a). —
b). his
c). him
d). he
3. My friend_______ in London.
a). living
b). live
c).lives
d).is live
4. Where_______?
a). works Tom
b). Tom works
c). Tom does work
d). does Tom work
5). I_______ coffee
a). no like
b). not like
c). like don’t
d). don’t like
However, according to English teacher Amondi Ochieng’, the exam was skewed, and did not achieve the desired result. The author further said that the exam is not as easy as people make it out to be.
“If you set an exam and only 10 out of 300 students pass; that exam is not valid statistically and does not serve the interest of the examinee. It is malicious and punitive which is probably the objective. It needs to be rechecked, reset, re-administered and reviewed,” she said. “The BNC English for instance is really really not easy if you do not teach it. I teach it, the stories are boring, the questions are super ambiguous and I know that is where IELTS get you.”
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Amondi further went on to say that nursing is one of the hardest courses to pass and get a license for, and it was unfair to drag nurses for a simple language test.
