Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

How top KCSE positions were shared in 2016


Details on how schools and candidates performed in this year’s Form Four examinations can be revealed.

Alliance Girls which had 25 As posted the highest number of candidates — seven — in the top 20 nationally, followed by Kenya High with 21 As overall but only six candidates among the leading scorers.

Alliance High School was third, having 14 candidates with grade A and placing one among the chart leaders.

Fourth was Kisii School which had six candidates with straight As, followed by Nairobi School with four.

Mangu High, Loreto Limuru and Kagumo, all from Kiambu, tied in the sixth position with three candidates apiece scoring grade A.

They were followed by Moi High School Kabarak, Moi Girls Eldoret, Orero Boys in Homa Bay, Sheikh Khalifa in Mombasa, Kapsabet Boys, Maranda High and Lenana School – all with two candidates attaining A grade.

The others in the sequence were Utumishi Academy in Gilgil, Starehe Boys Centre, Kanga High in Homa Bay, Friends Kamusinga in Bungoma, Litein High in Bomet, Agoro Sare of Homa Bay and Bahati Girls in Nakuru. Each had a single candidate with grade A.

BEST OVERALL CANDIDATE

According to the information from the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), the best overall candidate was Bernard Mwangi Maina of Nairobi School, who had a performance index of 85.999, followed by Joyce Wambui Kibugi of Alliance Girls with a performance index of 85.833.

Third was Benadetta Aoka Ogolla of Lugulu Girls with 85.539 followed by Sharon Chebet of Alliance Girls with 85 and Veronicah Wairumu Muriga of Kenya High with 84.987.

Nairobi School Principal Paul Kibet commended the boy for the top performance, attributing it to discipline, hard work and commitment to academic excellence.

“We are pleased to have produced the top candidate nationally. It shows our work was not in vain,” said Mr Kibet.

But the glaring reality is the variance between last year’s and this year’s results. Alliance High had 207 As in 2015 but managed only 14 this year, while Moi High School Kabarak that had 202 As realised only two this time round.

Top names such as Maseno, which had 137 As last year did not get any in 2016, just like Sunshine which had 76, St Joseph Boys, Kitale (71), Rang’ala Girls (5), Asumbi Girls (57), Karima Girls (49), Muranga Boys (46), Sacho (38), Kapsabet Girls (36), among others.

Releasing the results on Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the number of candidates scoring A grade reduced from 2,685 in 2015 to 141 this year.

Similarly, the number who obtained grade C+ and above, which marks the cut-off for university admission, went down by half — from 169,492 to 88,929.

STRINGENT RULES

The marked drop was attributed to stringent rules introduced in setting, administration, marking and processing of results, that cut off charlatans who had thrived on leaking the exams. The rules also eliminated cancellation of results.

“We are not cancelling results of any candidate compared with 2015 when results for 5,101 students were cancelled,” said Dr Matiang’i. “This is confirmation that security measures put in place during the administration and management of the 2016 KCSE examinations helped nip in the bud any forms of cheating.”

A total of 33,399 candidates scored grade E, representing 5.8 per cent of the total candidature.

In addition, there were 295,463 candidates who obtained grades D and below. Cumulatively, these candidates cannot proceed with higher education or even secure low-end jobs.

Statistics also reveal that the number of underage candidates — those below 16 — was on the rise, raising question of how such learners progressed in the school cycle.  In 2016, there were 12,767 candidates below the age, a rise from 9,789 last year.

The ideal age for a Form Four candidate is 17-20. Having many under or overage candidates leads to wastage in the education system.

“The percentage of underage candidates increased from 1.86 per cent in 2015 to 2.21 per cent in 2016, with Kisii County having the highest number (1,194) followed by Bomet (925) and Kericho (838),” said Dr Matiang’i.

In total, there were 574,125 candidates who sat the examinations this year, up from 522,870 last year. Thirty subjects were on offer.