Coast's best scoops 426 marks as Light Academy steals the show

Paramount Education Centre's staffs celebrate with Michael Mbaga who scored 401 marks in the year 2023 KCPE. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

Khadija Yunis Ahmed from Light Academy in Mombasa is the top candidate at the Coast in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.

Khadija scored 426 marks, two marks shy of the best candidate in the country, Michael Warutere, from Riara Group of Schools Primary, Imara Daima in Nairobi.

“I want to join Sheikh Khalifa Secondary School in Mombasa. I attribute this to prayers, hard work, and advice from my parents and teachers to also focus on my goals,” said the 13-year-old Khadija. 

Light Academy topped the Coast region with a mean score of 89 per cent (400 marks), as per the result compiled. The last candidate of the class of 33 (boys 17 and girls 16) had 377 marks.

A total of 18 candidates scored above 400 marks in the school.

The candidates performed exemplary in maths, with the top scoring 90 per cent and the least 88 per cent.

The school’s primary section deputy Principal, Rehema Swaleh, said that hard work and dedication from teachers with a passion for learning and excelling the pupils endeared them to good results.

“It’s an improvement and an achievement this year with the 400 mean score up from last year’s 394 marks,’’ she said.  The school’s Principal, Mr Yerkin Kalzhanov, said students were motivated by the team of energetic teachers.

“The goal was for all the candidates to attain 400 pass mark, and here we are. We are happy with what we got,’’ said a jubilant Kalzhanov, adding that last year, all their best teachers were taken to Zanzibar for a holiday.

“We are going to reward our teachers again this time round for an excellent job well done,’’ he said.

Another girl, Kayla Mwende, 14, from Light Academy, scored 402 marks and said she was shocked with her performance as she anticipated scoring 390 marks.

“Am happy with the marks, although I wasn’t expecting and thank my teachers and parents. I am self-motivated. I was expecting 390 marks,” she said, adding that she wishes to become a surgeon.

At Light Academy’s main rival, Nyali Primary, a community school, nine candidates scored over 400 marks. By the time of going to press, the school was still compiling its results.

The top candidate at Nyali Primary was Shwan Jeremy, who scored 419 marks, followed by Mabel Kwamboka with 412 marks. Others were Fatma Alawi 410, Shawn Kimathi 409, Neema Duke 406, Peninah Atonga 405, Aston Nyongesa 404 and Leon Lemayan 402. At Mombasa’s Paramount Primary School, Asmah Hussein scored 406 marks, and Michael Mbaga had 401 marks.

In Kilifi, Bandacho Primary School in Magarini Sub County recorded impressive results with 13 out of the 89 candidates who sat for the KCPE scoring 400 marks and above, and no candidate had less than 300 marks.

The best candidate, Gilbert Chea, scored 411 marks, followed by Vincent Karisa with 409 marks. The school’s headteacher, Ms Constance Kanze, attributed the success to teamwork and dedication.

“We are happy as a school because, despite the many challenges, the students still have scored impressive results. We hope each candidate will join a good secondary school,” said Ms Kanze.

Safari Furaha, a special needs student at Kabeteni Primary School in Ganze, Kilifi County, defied the odds and scored 355.

Rose Nganga is carried by teachers at Coast Central Adventist School in Mombasa. She scored 400 marks in KCPE on November 23, 2023.[Omondi Onyango, Standared]

Most schools at the Coast had not received the results due to an online system hitch and the floods.

 In Tana River, teachers and parents said they could not access the schools to compile the results.

Mr Oscar Vutita, a teacher at Sisters of St Joseph Holy Angeles Primary School in Hola town, said they came early to the school in anticipating good results but experienced a delay.

“We expected parents also to come in large numbers, but they have not arrived due to the uncertainty caused by the jam,” he said, adding that the school had 32 KCPE candidates.

 Compiling the results was an agonizing exercise for schools by the time of going to press as most of them had not been able to tabulate their results from the national portal.

At the Ganjoni Primary School, a reputable public primary institution, a clerk who was present told The Standard that teachers had tried in vain to download the results.

“We hope we shall have results for you tomorrow (today). Everyone has gone home after they could not download the result,’’ the clerk said.

The story was the same at the St Augustine Primary School in Mvita constituency and Paramount Education Centre in Nyali. In Taita Taveta, Bahati Nahira from Bright Days Academy scored 415 marks.

(By Philip Mwakio, Marion Kithi, Joackim Bwana, Ishaq JUmbe, Renson Mnyamwezi and Nehemiah Okwemba)