Ms Lokwee Chepkemei Phoebe is mobbed by her family at Marigat, Baringo
County, on December 29, 2016 after emerging among the country’s top
performers in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education
examination. Chepkemei, who hails from Chemolingot in Tiaty, sat the
test at Alliance Girls High School and scored an A of 82 points. PHOTO |
CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Alliance Girls made a dramatic comeback to the top of the charts
as it registered 25 straight As in this year’s Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education. The school’s top candidates had 82 points.
It
was closely followed by Kenya High School, which had 21 candidates with
grade A, seven of them of 82 points. Few schools had A grade.
And girls generally had a field day. Out of the top 20 candidates nationally, 16 were girls.
And girls generally had a field day. Out of the top 20 candidates nationally, 16 were girls.
However, the best overall candidate nationally was Jacob Wekesa of Alliance High School with straight As of 86.794 points.
Education
Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who released the results, commended
Alliance Girls and Kenya High, saying they have consistently posted
credible and believable results over time while other schools posted
unrealistic grades.
“I must commend some girls schools
that, unlike many other schools, nearly maintained their achievement of
top mean grades in the 2016 KCSE, including Alliance Girls and The Kenya
High School. Alliance Girls had 25 candidates with grade A plain as
last year while The Kenya High had 21 candidates with the mean grade of A
plain, one more than last year,” he said.
FIDELITY TO RULES
Alliance Girls Deputy Principal Veronicah Ngunjuri affirmed that
their performance was a testimony to their fidelity to rules and
virtues of honesty and hard work.
Kenya High’s
Principal Florah Mulatya said the results reflected the true capability
of their candidates and commended the ministry for instituting drastic
changes that enabled schools to show their real abilities.
Some of the top performing schools across the country were Kisii School which had six candidates with grade A of 81 points.
Others
in the series were Mangu High School and Kagumo High School, which had
three candidates with straight As. In the Rift , Moi Girls Eldoret,
Kabarak and Kapsabet had two candidates each scoring grades A, while
Nakuru Girls High School, Utumishi Academy and Nakuru Boys High had one
candidate with grade A.
In Nyanza, other top
performers were Agoro Sare of Homa Bay County and Nyambaria Boys High in
Nyamira with one candidate each obtaining grade A. Friend’s Kamusinga
of Bungoma was among the leading schools in Western region, with a
candidate with grade A.
Elsewhere, Baricho Boys
Secondary School in Kirinyaga, Meru School, Embu’s Moi High School and
Mbiruri shone and did Nyeri High School, Othaya Boys, St Mary’s Boys,
South Tetu, Murang’a High and Pioneer School.
At the
Coast, private schools dominated the top positions, among them, Light
Academy Mombasa, Abu Hureira Academy, Memon High School and Sheikh
Khalifa Bin Zayed Secondary School. The venerable Allidina Visram High
School, an institution with a long and rich history, also made it to the
top and did Lamu Girls Secondary School.
The greatest
shocker of the day was the drastic drop in the number of candidates with
sterling grades. Only 141 candidates scored grade A countrywide,
representing a sharp decline from last year when 2,685 candidates
scored the same grade. In fact, some schools had more than 200 grade As
each, more than all the As attained nationally this year.
Again,
compared to last year, there were only 88,929 or 15.41 per cent of the
candidates attaining grade C+, which is the minimum entry qualification
to university, compared to 169,492 last year.
NO RESULTS CANCELLED
This
means that some 485,196 candidates failed to make the university grade,
out of a total of 574,125 candidates who sat the exams this year.
Unlike
in the past and particularly last year, no results were cancelled for
cheating. Last year, results for 5,001 candidates were cancelled over
irregularities; the highest in the history of the national exams.
Dr
Matiang’i said the reforms introduced to clean up the mess in the
setting, administration and marking of national exams had paid
dividends.
“Consistent to the Ministry’s drive to rid
the system of malpractices, I wish to report that KCSE examinations were
not leaked,” he said. “I wish to report that all attempted cases of
examination malpractices were detected and dealt with appropriately
before they could happen.”
Some candidates will,
however, have to wait longer before getting their results because of
suspected irregularities and other anomalies.
“We
should take note that there are a few candidates whose results have been
held back as Knec investigates the reasons as to why there were gaps in
some of their examination papers, including failure to sit the minimum
number of subjects or combinations as required,” said the CS.
Dr
Matiang’i, who joined in the Ministry late year, initiated a raft of
measures, starting with dissolving the Kenya National Examinations
Council board and sacking top officials, including Chief Executive
Joseph Kivilu and replacing them with a new team under the chairmanship
of Prof George Magoha, a former vice-chancellor of the University of
Nairobi.
The CS also reorganised the school calendar,
extending the second term and shortening the third. Only the candidates
remained in schools during the examination period. School principals
were put in charge of exam administration.
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