Private schools posted the best results in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam at the Coast.
Reports indicated Bethany Christian Academy in Kwale County emerged the second best school nationally. The 15 candidates in the school had a mean score of 416.
Mombasa’s Busy Bee Primary School was also among the best, producing Glens Sewe who scored 436 marks. The school that had 21 candidates recorded a mean score of 395 marks.
Nguya Teddy Nyale, who sat the exam at Ganjoni Primary School, a public institution in Mombasa, scored 427 marks.
Other well-performing schools were Light Academy, St Kevins of Mombasa and Mwatate Jnr Preparatory School in Taita Taveta.
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National honours
Nationally, Kakamega and Meru counties scooped top national honours after producing the best candidate and school respectively in this year’s KCPE exams.
Goldalyn Kakuya of St Anne Lubao in Kakamega County scored 455 out of 500 marks to emerge the top candidate nationally in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results released yesterday.
Kakuya beat the second candidate with eight marks, maintaining the county’s pride of producing the top candidate for the third year in a row.
Murega Sharon Nkatha of Kathigiri Boarding School in Meru County scored 447 marks to emerge the second best candidate overall. Four candidates scored 446 to tie in position three nationally.
Mwangi Eugene Mburu of Effort Junior academy, Okuthe Mary Giovanni Tonnuci of Chumo Education Centre, Chaka Ruth Mose of Bethany Christian Academy and Amboka Victor Wanyungu of St Mary’s Ruaraka all scored 446 marks.
Overall, Freds Academy in Meru County, which registered 55 candidates, emerged the best school nationally in the 2017 KCPE examination results, posting a mean score of 419.
Bethany Christian Academy of Kwale County with 15 candidates was the second best school nationally, posting a mean score of 416.
Crystal Hill Academy that registered 56 candidates and Mogotio Little Friends (24 candidates) of Baringo County each posted a mean score of 408 to emerge position three nationally.
Chelsa Academy of Bomet closed the top five best schools nationally. The school registered 26 candidates and posted a mean score of 407.
However, the known giants that have dominated KCPE examinations over years were notably missing from the top schools’ list.
Makini Schools in Nairobi and Kisumu, Gilgil Hill Academy, Mt Kenya Academy, New Light in Komarock (Nairobi) were conspicuously missing from the top charts. Although there was no official ranking of schools and candidates, The Standard independently formulated a tally based on results obtained from various sources.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said some schools that registered satellite schools to claim good grades were stamped out.
President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to support schools that have performed well.
“The president has today at State House acknowledged the performance of public schools that produced candidates in the top 100,” said Matiang’i.
He said the schools would receive some money to improve their infrastructure capacity.
Better grades
Matiang’i announced this year’s candidates posted better grades compared to previous years. “The performance of candidates in this year’s examination has generally improved compared to last year. This is largely attributed to the adequate preparation of candidates by teachers under the new stringent examinations regime,” said Matiang’i.
No cheating cases were reported. “There was no single case of examination irregularities and there is nothing to report,” said Matiang’i.
He said the lack of cheating cases was a sign of dedication by the examination team and cooperation of teachers.
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said no teacher was punished for examination-related cases this year.
Ms Macharia said TSC was looking of ways of rewarding and appreciating the teachers.
“We will see how to reward these teachers. As we have always said, exemplary work will be rewarded,” said Macharia.
Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) Chairman Prof George Magoha said teachers braved bad weather to administer the examinations.
He said there were the 176,251 contracted professionals during the entire examination period.
On subject performance, Matiang’i said five subjects – English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Kenyan Sign Language and Religious Education – recorded major improvement.
On general scores, the number of candidates scoring 400 marks and above rose to 9,846, up from 5,145 last year.
Six candidates with special needs were among the top 100. Some 2,038 candidates with special needs sat the KCPE examination with the highest candidate scoring 426 marks out of the possible 500 marks.
Good news however is that all candidates who scored 400 marks and above will be admitted to the coveted national schools. Form One selection will be launched on December 4.
Kenya Private Schools Association (Kpsa) welcomed the move to consider all children equally during Form One selection.
“Parents should not expect to go through the annual nightmare of school placement since we have put in place measures to ensure all the candidates are admitted to secondary schools,” said Matiang’i.
Free education
Matiang’i announced the Government’s commitment to rolling out free secondary education from January next year.
This means that candidates who will not have managed higher grades will be admitted to day schools to study for free.
Data released yesterday shows some 217,307 candidates scored between 300 and 400 marks compared to 207,141 candidates in a similar range last year.
Matiang’i also said some 529,897 candidates scored between 201 and 300 marks compared to 221,438 last year.
Only 2,360 candidates scored below 100 marks compared to 6,747 last year.
And for the first time, gender parity was achieved. A total of 993,718 candidates sat the 2017 KCPE examination.
Of these, 498,775 (50.19 per cent) were boys and 494,943 (49.81 per cent) girls.
Four counties registered the highest candidature this year. Nairobi registered 56,073 candidates, Nakuru (50,046), Kakamega (46,448) and Bungoma (45,161).
Matiang’i said the percentage increase in the number of female candidates was higher than that of male candidates in the 2017 KCPE examination.
He said 50.19 per cent were boys and 48.19 per cent were girls.
Some 27 counties however registered more female than male candidates compared to 23 in the 2016 KCPE.
Matiang’i listed Kakamega, Meru, Bungoma, Nairobi, Embu, Machakos, Kisii, Kitui, Makueni, Siaya, Busia, Nyamira, Tharaka Nithi and Kisumu as some of the counties with more girls.
