The tough reforms in the national schools examinations dealt a devastating blow to schools that were previously the top performing ones in Mt Kenya East.
Results compiled by schools through the Kenya National Examination Council’s short messaging service showed no school in the entire Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties had any student who achieved a straight A.
The top performers were all at A- (minus), which was a major climb down from last year when the top schools registered several As and A- (minus) grades.
In the 2015 KCSE, Chogoria Girls in Tharaka Nithi had 21 candidates attaining Grade A and 104 with A-.
Last year, Meru School had 11 students with straight As. 76 had A-, 30 scored B, 47 B-, 100 C+, nine C and only one got a C-.
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Materi Girls High School in Tharaka Nithi recorded a mean score of 9.675 and one student, Susan Nduta Migwi, scored an A while 36 others had A-.
Chogoria Girls Principal Virginia Gitonga said the school had recorded a poor performance compared to past years having registered only six A- grades out of 209 students who sat the examination this year.
The story was replicated at Meru School, where 26 candidates scored A-, 37 got B+, 44 had B, 52 scored B- and 49 with C+ bringing to over 200 those who had minimum university admission grades. The school registered 283 candidates.
St Mary’s Igoji, which is the second national school in Meru County also had a marked decline in performance: 21 achieved A-, 36 had B+, 45 got B, 32 managed B-, 28 C+, 22 C, six had C- and two Ds.
Nkubu High School which recorded an epic decline. Its mean score dropped from 8.896 (B) last year to 5.85 in 2016.
Teachers at Chogoria Girls High School remained tight-lipped, and were not ready to share the school's results.
