Anxious wait for 889,000 KCPE candidates as ministry announces results Monday

Marvin Mokua, 13, from Uasin Gishu County is feeling a little nervous but hoping for the best ahead of the release of the Standard Eight examination results Monday.

He is one among the 889,000 candidates whose Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results will be released by Education Cabinet Secretary Joseph Kaimenyi.

“I am nervous but eagerly waiting for the results as I know I did my part,” says the former pupil of Queen of Angels School in Eldoret.

“I know that after the results, I will make decisions that will affect my life.”

Marvin is hoping to score 420 marks and join Mang’u High School, which was his first choice.

The candidates sat the KCPE exam last month in 24,278 examination centres across the country. Last year, 844,000 sat the examinations in 23,819 centres.

Marvin will be among the candidates who could receive their results under a new format that ranks neither candidates nor their schools.

Better grades

Education Principal Secretary Bellio Kipsang recently announced a ban on ranking of schools in national examinations as part of measures to eliminate cut-throat competition among institutions.

“Ranking of schools and students on the basis of national examination results is discontinued with immediate effect,” Dr Kipsang said in the announcement widely criticised by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).

If the Education ministry effects the ban on school ranking, then attention will be focused on the candidates’ scores, which is the basis of admission to secondary schools.

The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) could also rank counties in terms of their general performance and the number of candidates registered.

Many will be keen to assess whether the candidates, the fourth cohort of those enrolled under the free primary education programme, will produce better KCPE grades than previous years.

Since 2010, no candidate has scored more than 450 marks out of the maximum 500 in KCPE, yet this mark had often been surpassed in previous years.

In 2013, Brian Kimutai of Stewards Light school, Nandi, and Daphne Otieno of Golden E Premier in Kisumu tied at 444 marks, the highest ever score since 2009.

In 2012, the two top candidates, Joy Kinoti Kathure and Bonface Mwaura Kiongo, tied at  430 marks, the poorest leading score in the past ten years.

Another key focus likely to dominate the exam results is the performance in individual subjects. For the past three years, Knec has managed to mask the scores from the public when releasing the results, for unexplained reasons.

KCPE candidates sit five papers; English (Objective and Composition), Kiswahili (Objective and Insha), Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Religious Studies.

Although the council releases individual scores in the rating of schools, it has not been releasing the subject scores, causing fears that there could have been poor performance in the exams.

The council only includes the tests in the KCPE newsletter, which is published many months later, usually in September of the following year, just two months to the next exam.

This makes it difficult for teachers to determine how they can better prepare candidates for the national exam.

Top county

If the council ranks counties, then it will be interesting to see if Kirinyaga county will retain the first position for a third time running. The county came tops in 2012 and last year, recording a mean score of 273 and 274, respectively.

It was followed by Elgeyo Marakwet, which also retained its second position over the last two years.

In last year’s KCPE, Makueni emerged third, followed by Nandi and Uasin Gishu.

The release of the examination results Monday will open the way for Form One selection, which starts early next month.

According to the Education Ministry guidelines, the Form One admission process entails the admission into either national, county or district day schools depending on a candidate’s choices.

“National schools admit based on candidature and affirmative action, thus enabling each district to get a candidate selected (to a national school),” say the guidelines post at the Education ministry website.

“Cut-off to each national school is automatically determined based on the last candidate to be selected to a given national school from a given district in a county.”

Last week, Knec secretary Joseph Kivilu advised all candidates and respective head teachers that result slips would be downloaded from the Knec website (www.knec.ac.ke).

“Upon receipt of the results, thoroughly scrutinise the results for correctness and ensure the accuracy of names, index number and gender, school code and the individual subjects,” he said.

Candidates have a one-month window period within which to lodge their complaints on any discrepancies noted in the examination results.

Last year, some 1,576 candidates had their results cancelled due to irregularities.

– INB AFRICA