32,000 students who joined secondary school in 2014 miss KCSE exam boat

DESIGN| LISA MUGUNDA

About 32,000 students who joined Form One in 2014 will not sit this year’s Form Four examination, which starts on Monday across the country.

A total of 844,475 candidates sat for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and 647,602 were selected to join Form One in 2014. The cohort is sitting KCSE this year.

However, statistics from Kenya National Examination Council indicate that 615,773 candidates registered to sit the KCSE in 2017, which means that 31,829 (five per cent) did not complete their secondary studies.

During the Form One selection four years ago, a total 196,024 candidates or a quarter missed slots in secondary schools with about 100,000 of them being advised by the government to join youth polytechnics.

A total of 17,175 candidates were selected to join 78 national schools, 824 joined special schools, 53,625 joined extra- county schools (53,625), were selected for county schools (121,902); sub- county schools (392, 742) while private schools admitted 61,334.

Performance

In terms of performance, the top candidates were Kimutai Brain of Stewards Light School from Nandi County and Otieno Akoth Daphine of Golden Elite premier, Kisumu who tied at 444 points. In position three was Mpekethu Uniter Riziki of Kathigiri B, Meru, who scored 442 points.

The top counties were Kirinyaga, Elgeyo Marakwet, Makueni, Kisumu and Nandi. The top public schools were; Kathigiri B Primary, St Mathews Septonok in Nandi and M.P.I.S primary in Homa Bay among others while Makini Ngong road academy and Nyali St. Kevin elite topped in the private schools category, respectively.

The number of candidates who cheated in the KCPE exam in 2013 doubled to 1,576 candidates from 718 candidates the previous year.

Private schools performed better than their public counterparts in the 2013 examinations. The academies dominated the top 10 positions besides producing most of the best candidates nationally.

However, two public schools − Kathigiri B Primary school in Meru and St Mathews Septonok − managed to stand out by also posting some of the top-ranked candidates, and impressive mean scores.

In terms of gender, 413,396 (49.2 per cent) were girls, up from 396,310 (48.8 per cent) in 2012. This represented an increase of 17,080 girls. Some 426,369 boys (50.8 per cent ) sat the exam, up from 415,620 in 2012.

Some 10,000 candidates scored less than 100 marks in examination. This meant the candidates obtained an average of 20 marks in each of the five subjects in the examination. In contrast to the poor performers, about 6,000 candidates obtained more than 400 marks out of a possible 500.

The highest KCPE exam score ever achieved was in 2008, when the best candidate got 460 out of a possible 500.

On Monday the candidates will sit French (oral) German (oral), Arabic (oral), Kenya sign language, music, and building and construction.