Education CS Ezekiel Machogu Speech during the release of 2022 KCPE Results

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu released the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results at Mitihani House, Nairobi on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.

Below is his full speech.

"I am today standing before you to make perhaps my most significant address to the nation since His Excellency President William Ruto appointed me Cabinet Secretary for Education nearly two months ago. Over these two months, I have taken time to personally consult widely over the status of our education sector, which is arguably one that attracts interests from every household. For in every home, there is a child.

More importantly, my appointment immediately threw me to the deep of the sector, with the national examinations season lurking, and the need to clear the muddle that was 5 the Grade Six cohort's transition to Junior Secondary school under the Competency Based Curriculum.

By good fortune, the Head of State - in keeping with his promise as outlined in the Education Charter of Kenya Kwanza's manifesto - stepped in with a brilliant decision to appoint the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms. By dint of the team's preliminary report, the President has already directed that the Junior Secondary school be domiciled in the existing primary schools.

What did this master stroke decision of our President mean? It means that parents will now not lose sleep over finding Grade Seven places in secondary schools, which could have become their worst headache ever had President Ruto not saved the situation.

Secondly, domiciling the Junior Secondary within the primary school level means that the expected crisis of a double intake in our already congested high schools was averted.

Lastly, it means that the newly constructed classes in secondary schools that were initially meant for the Junior Secondary school level are now available to ease our strained infrastructure in secondary schools. We therefore expect to have a relatively peaceful path to the achievement of the 100 per cent transition policy of government during the Form One admission next year.

Focus of Ministry of Education Administration

Amid the smooth administration of the national examinations for 2022, I have - together with my top administration - subjected the sector into a quick baseline analysis with a view to finding an anchor upon which the new Government can roll in its interventions. Based on this analysis, we have realised that, for us to raise the sector performance a notch higher, we must anchor our management on the following:

Robust stakeholder consultations - As a Ministry, and working with key agencies, we will walk together with all sector players while embracing regular consultations and public participation in line with our Constitution. In this, we will take a cue from the example already set through the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, which has combed every part of our country to collect views from all Kenyans. Ensuring staff and technical Officers work with formidable team work - We will redouble efforts to motivate our staff of the Ministry of Education for them to deliver service to Kenyans in one spirit. I promise to work with all stakeholders to ensure staff deployments, recognition and promotions are strictly based on merit and are carried out in strict conformity with Chapter 10 on Values and Principles of the Constitution. I am alive to the fact that regardless of how smart our policies will be, they will always be doomed to failure unless our implementing staff are motivated to work well, since they sit at the execution desks, and closer to the consumers of our services. Focused reform of policies and regulations We are looking to the Presidential Working Party to make recommendations about laws, policies and regulations in our sector. We have seen a number of attempts to amend some of the existing laws, policies and regulations, a few of which are currently pending before the National Assembly. Under my stewardship of the sector, we will carefully consult with all stakeholders with a view to driving the reform processes to a decisive and logical conclusion based on recommendations of the Working Party. We will appeal on the respective committees of the National Assembly and the Senate to be patient with us as we will regularly knock on their doors as we seek these legal and policy reforms.

Inevitably, many of the expected reforms will stem from the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party when it completes its work early next year.

MULTI-SECTORAL AGENCY IN EXAMINATIONS MONITORING

This being my inaugural function for the release of KCPE Examination results, I feel elated that we have successfully administered two national examinations concurrently at the primary school level and results for the KCPE examination are ready within a period of 20 days.

I wish to thank His Excellency the President, Dr. William Ruto for his leadership and support during the conduct of the 2022 KCPE examination. The President led the multiagency team and the Cabinet Secretaries in monitoring of the administration of KCPE examination where they visited examination centres and exhibited support for the candidates. My Cabinet colleagues braced the morning cold to be at examination containers in solidarity with the contracted personnel, a proof that the current administration is determined to maintain credible national examinations. I also thank our teachers for their instrumental role in the preparation of our candidates and the participation in the administration of the 2022 KCPE Examination.

I applaud the Centre Managers, Supervisors, Invigilators, Examiners, Sub-County Directors of Education, Deputy County Commissioners and Security Officers who played exemplary roles in helping us deliver a credible examination.

JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TRANSITION

In his recent directive on the domiciling of Grade 6, 7 and 8, His Excellency President William Ruto ordered the Ministry of Education to provide further guidelines on the transition. Following this directive, I formed a multi-agency committee to draft guidelines that will guide the transition. Specifically, the committee is expected to draft guidelines that will effectively:

Ensure a seamless transition from primary school Grade 6 to Junior Secondary School. Facilitate effective leadership and management of Junior Secondary School. Promote consistency in the implementation of the Junior Secondary School curriculum including teaching and learning, and assessment. Ensure the provision of adequate, appropriate and safe physical infrastructure and a learner-friendly environment for all learners including those with Special Needs and Disabilities. Ensure the provision of adequate and well prepared human resources to facilitate curriculum delivery for Junior Secondary School. Outline the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the implementation of the various components of Junior Secondary School.

I expect to hold a meeting with all stakeholders on January 3 rd 2023 to consider and release the guidelines so they can provide a roadmap to all players as they prepare for the Junior Secondary School.

Already, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has released the Grade 7 Curriculum Designs and instructional materials for use at the Junior Secondary School level.

KENYA PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT

Arising from the Presidential directive, and cascaded to the Kenya National Examinations Council by myself, the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will not be used for placement of the learners in Junior Secondary School. The KPSEA Report will however be part of the process of monitoring of learner progress.

I have directed the Kenya National Examinations Council to upload the report of the assessment on the school portals in January 2023 to enable schools to develop strategies of further teaching and learning.

THE 100 PER CENT TRANSITION POLICY

As is the Government tradition, all the candidates whose results I am releasing today will be admitted to Form One under the 100 per cent transition policy. There should be no case of any parent or guardian keeping their children at home when admissions to Form One are opened up as this is against the Constitutional requirement.

ACADEMIC CALENDAR FOR 2023

Since the country experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, which occasioned a prolonged closure of schools, the Government has been running a heavily constricted and reorganised school calendar in a spirited attempt to restore the normal term dates.

This reorganisation of school term dates has come at a heavy cost to parents in terms of pressure to clear school fees within short intervals; teachers having heavy workloads, while learners have had to cover more content within extremely short time.

I wish to particularly single out the 2022 KCPE cohort whose examination results we are releasing today. When COVID19 hit our country in March 2020, the cohort was in Standard Six, and only resumed their classes upon the full reopening of schools in January 2021. Between January 2021 and November 2022 (just 23 months) this cohort has managed to cover three school calendar years. This is astonishingly incredible. In fact, the cohort covered their Grade 8 school calendar in just six months, having joined in June 2022.

In between, the country went into a General Election that also occasioned an unnecessarily long half term break, besides the confusion and anxiety associated with such a national exercise.

Please join me in celebrating our 2022 cohort of KCPE, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I wish to thank all the stakeholders, especially parents and teachers, for withstanding the financial and teaching pressures respectively that came with the shorter school terms as forced upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to all your concerted efforts, we will from January 2023 revert to our normal school calendar.

FORM ONE SELECTION EXERCISE

The Ministry is determined to place the 2022 KCPE candidates in secondary schools as soon as possible to give parents adequate time to prepare them for the admissions to Form One. The actual Form One selection exercise for all categories of schools will be concluded on January 16th, 2023.

CANDIDATURE DETAILS FOR THE 2022 KCPE

A total of 1,233,852 candidates sat the 2022 KCPE Examination in 28,408 centres across the country. These candidates will be allowed to start their secondary school journey as they have all qualified to be admitted to Form One. Congratulations to the class of 2022 for your spirited academic campaign that defied the triple challenge of a general election, COVID-19 and shortened school calendars.

Of these candidates, 620,965 (50.32%) were boys while 612,887 (49.67%) girls, a clear indication that our country has achieved gender parity at primary school level. In the 2021 KCPE, 1,214,031 candidates sat the examination.

According to the data, four counties had a significant entry of more male than female candidates. These were Turkana, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera.

On the other hand, Marsabit, Isiolo and Meru had a significant entry of more female than male candidates in the Examination.

The number of candidates who sat the Examination in hospitals in 2022 was 147 compared with 166 in 2021. All these candidates will also progress to Form One.

CANDIDATES' AGE PROFILES

The number of registered candidates who were 12 years and below declined from 33,627 (2.74%) in 2021 to 31,498 (2.53%) in 2022 indicating that parents and schools are on the right path of enrolling children in school at the right age.

The counties which had the highest percentage entry for candidates who were 12 years and below for the year 2022 KCPE Examination were: Baringo, Wajir, Kericho, Bomet, West Pokot.

The highest number of candidates were in the appropriate age bracket of 13-15 years, (885,162; 71.13%), a trend that has been replicated in the last five years.

The counties which had the highest percentage of candidates who were 18 years and above were Garissa, Turkana, Kilifi, Kwale and Mandera.

PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES

In the 2022 KCPE Examination, overall performance improved compared to 2021 despite the difficult situation that faced this cohort of candidates. The mark of the highest candidate rose four points from 428 in 2021 to 431 in 2022.

Another positive indicator of better candidates' performance was in the mean average performance. The data analysis shows that more than half of all the candidates who sat the examination (619,583 or 50.22 per cent) scored between 200 and 299 marks as compared with 578,106 or 47.17 per cent who scored between the same marks in 2021. We are therefore very impressed with the KCPE Examination class of 2022 for performing very well and raising the standards of the mean performance.

Additionally, whereas 1,170 candidates scored between 01 and 99 marks in the 2021 KCPE Examination, that number has gone down to only 724 in the 2022 Examination despite the rise in overall candidature in the two years. This was an indicator that most candidates scored better grades than the previous year.

In particular, I am impressed that 39 candidates with special needs scored 400 marks and above compared with only two in 2021. The first candidate with special needs scored 419 marks more than the top candidate in 2021 who scored 417.

PERFORMANCE PER SUBJECT

Overall, we have been impressed that four papers recorded an improvement in performance in the year 2022 when compared to 2021. These are: English Language, Kiswahili Lugha, Kiswahili Insha and Kenyan Sign Language.

However, six papers, English Composition, Kenyan Sign Language Composition, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Religious Education recorded a drop in performance in 2022 compared with 2021.

Female candidates performed better than their male counterparts in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language.

Male candidates performed better than their female counterparts in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies and Religious Education.

I wish to direct the Quality Assurance and Standards to find ways of addressing the gaps that might be causing the performance of either gender as there seems to be a pattern where girls beat boys in specific subjects each year and vice versa. Nonetheless, I thank the teachers, parents and candidates for achieving this astounding performance as the country emerges from the COVID-19 and the effects of the General Election.

The summary of grades is as follows:

The overall performance for Special Needs candidates is as follows:

EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES

The combined efforts of the Multi-Agency Examinations Team of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Interior and National Administration, ICT and Digital Economy and the Teachers Service Commission helped to ensure the 2022 KCPE Examination was free of malpractices. Overall, there were only 252 candidates in nine examination centres who were found to have engaged in malpractices. These candidates have been scored zero (0) in the subjects where they engaged in malpractices. Nonetheless, the affected candidates' overall mark will be computed less the mark awarded in the affected subject. The candidate will receive their examination results and will transition to secondary school. This is in the spirit of the 100 per cent transition policy.

ACCESSING THE 2022 KCPE EXAMINATION RESULTS

As is our tradition, the KCPE Examination results will be collected by respective schools from the Sub County Education offices. Candidates should therefore collect their results from their respective examination centres. Individual candidates' results can also be accessed by sending a candidate's index number followed by the initials KCPE through a Short Message Service (SMS) to 20076. This service will be available immediately after this event.

Head teachers will be required to download and print the on-line results slips for candidates in their schools and authenticate the same before they are released to parents, guardians or candidates.

It is now my pleasure to declare the 2022 KCPE Examination results officially released. I wish all the candidates and indeed all stakeholders in the education sector a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2023."