Sheikh Khalifa, Light Academy shine in Coast

MOMBASA: Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Secondary and Aga Khan High schools joined Coast’s roll of honour with excellent performance in an examination dominated by private schools.

Also on the list of top performing schools in the 2014 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results released Tuesday is Kenyatta High School Mwatate and Light Academy.

Preliminary results compiled by The Standard show private schools outperformed their public counterparts in the coastal region. According to the results that had trickled in by the time of going to press Tuesday, three out of the four top-performing schools were private.

Aga Khan High School, which registered 147 candidates, had 21 candidates with A (plain). And Sheikh Khalifa which had registered 150 candidates had 17 scoring straight As, earning it a mean grade of 10.12, the highest in the coastal region so far.

Light Academy from Mombasa County had 17 candidates scoring the top grade while Taita Taveta’s Kenyatta High School Mwatate had five As and a mean grade of 8.1.

The Education ministry abolished ranking last year, a move that has seen many schools manually calculate their mean scores to know how they compare with other schools in the country.

Ms Naseem Faiz Hyder from Sheikh Khalifa was among the 3,073 candidates nationally who scored a mean grade of A.

Naseem, who was at her former school to celebrate the results, was also among the top-performing female candidates in the coastal region, having scored 84 points.

Hola Boys Secondary School, Madogo, Hirmani, and Tarasaa High are the top-performing schools in Tana River County.

Taita Taveta’s Dr Aggrey High School was also among the top performers having garnered a mean grade of 7.348.

While releasing the results Tuesday, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi directed secondary school principals to stick to the stipulated fees guidelines and put those defying the order on notice.

He also instructed school heads who have not released certificates to past candidates to do so immediately.

Of the 483,630 candidates who sat last year’s KCSE exams, 149,717 scored the minimum university entry grade of C+. This compares to 123,365 candidates who attained the same grade in 2013.

The results, however, showed 333,903 candidates would be locked out of public universities’ admission this year.

Prof Kaimenyi described the 2014 results as a ‘tremendous improvement’ from the previous year.

He said 3,073 candidates scored grade A (plain) compared to 2,722 who posted same results the previous year.

Kaimenyi also announced that of the 1,090 candidates with special needs, 180 of them scored Grade C+ and above. Five candidates with special needs scored A (plain).

Some 11,768 candidates scored A- (minus) compared to 9,759 in 2013.

Kaimenyi said 19,814 candidates scored a mean grade of B+ compared to 17,013 in the previous year.

Statistics released also indicate a drop in the number of candidates who scored E, the lowest in the grading system. Some 5,636 candidates scored E compared to 7,042 in the 2013 exams.

 

Overall, boys performed better than girls. The CS revealed an analysis of the results shows 88,299 male candidates and some 61,418 female candidates attained the overall mean Grade of C+.

 

“This points to the fact that male candidates outperformed female candidates in the 2014 KCSE examinations,” explained Kaimenyi.

He, however, said many options have been provided for those who miss university slots.

The CS announced some 60 technical training institutes were being constructed and another nine were being stocked to cater for more students.

Kaimenyi announced that examination irregularities had dropped, with only 2,975 cases reported. This compares to 3,812 cases in 2013.

 

“This represents a 22 per cent decrease in the number of candidates involved in examination irregularities, which is highly commendable,” Kaimenyi added.

He said the number of examination centres involved in cheating also dropped from 199 the previous year to 174 last year.

Five national schools had their results cancelled for cheating.

Some 2,410 candidates colluded to cheat while 209 were caught with unauthorised materials during examinations. Another 179 candidates were nabbed using mobile phones.

Kaimenyi said Taita Taveta, Tana River, Lamu, Nyandarua, Marsabit, Siaya and Lamu counties recorded zero cases of cheating.

On subjects’ performance, Kaimenyi revealed there was a remarkable improvement in 15 of the 31 subjects examined.

English, Kiswahili, Mathematics (Alternative B), Biology, Chemistry, History and Government, Power Mechanics, Electricity, Drawing and Islamic Religious Education (IRE) recorded improved performance.

Candidates also did well in Agriculture, Metalwork and Computer Studies.

Kaimenyi said Mathematics (alternative A), Physics, Home Science, Art and Design, Woodwork, Aviation Technology, Arabic, Kenya Sign Language and Business Studies recorded a drop in performance.

“The continued poor performance is due to teacher-related factors, unfriendly school environment, student-related factors and parent-related factors,” said Kaimenyi.

The CS, however, said girls performed better than their male counterparts in English, Kiswahili, Christian Religious Education, Home Science and Art and Design.

Results of other examinations administered by Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) were also released Tuesday.

Results of three Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) exams, four business examinations and one technical examination were released alongside KCSE’s.

But even as he released examination results, Kaimenyi firmed up the Government’s stand on a raft of issues that have recently elicited mixed reactions from teachers’ organisations, associations and private schools.

He said ranking of candidates and schools shall remain banned, explaining that the decision was based on a myriad of recommendations by key education task forces.

He said a Presidential Commission of Inquiry instituted in 1999 and chaired by Davy Koech was the first to recommend putting a stop on ranking.

In 2001, the Naomi Wangai Task Force on schools unrest also recommended an end to schools and candidates’ ranking, he said.

Kaimenyi also said the Parliamentary Committee on Education’s report and the 2012 Prof Douglas Odhiambo Task Force also made similar proposals. And last year, the CS said the Kilemi Mwiria Task Force on secondary school fees also recommended discontinuation of ranking.

“So I did not wake up one morning like a mad man to ban ranking of schools and candidates,” he said.

Knut maintained that ranking was an international practice that must be adopted.