Only 141 straight As: The intrigues of 2016 KCSE results

 

 Education CS Fred Matiang'i

Only 141 students scored straight As in 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Fred Matiang’i has announced today 29th December 2016.

This is a huge drop from previous year’s results which the Cabinet Secretary said has not been the true picture of the education system. “Some schools last year scored more than hundred As, this year they have only 2!” he said.

He announced that there were only 141 straight As compared to 2,636 As in 2015 and 3,073 in 2014.

In the KCSE results of 2016, students with A minus were 4645 and 10975 got B+. “141 As are fewer than what one school got last year,” The CS remarked. 

While announcing the results at Shimo La Tewa High School in Mombasa, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i noted that out of a total of 574,125 candidates who sat the examinations, only 88,929 scored between C+ (plus) and A (plain). This was a clear contrast to the past years where in 2015, those who scored C+(plus) and above were 165,766 and 149,719 in 2014.

Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) boss George Magoha said the results were a true reflection of students’ abilities. “We should not ruin our children’s future by letting them steal examinations. Those candidates who have scored C+ (plus) and above can do medicine and engineering courses at the university,” Magoha said. The results were a shock to many public and private schools that have been used to posting good results with entire classes scoring straight As.

 The Cabinet Secretary said that unlike previous years, this year there was no single case of cheating thanks to the measures his ministry had taken. In marking centres, for example he said  marks were transmitted as soon as the markers were done with the papers.

This, he pointed out was to reduce the number of people in contact with the results once they had been submitted by markers.

Important to note is that out of the top 20 positions 16 were girls a change from the norm through the years. Matiang’i singled out Kenya High School and Alliance Girls High School for their consistent performance. “I must commend some girl schools that have, unlike many other schools, nearly maintained their achievement of top mean grades in the KCSE 2016, including Alliance Girls’ and Kenya High School,’’ he said.

Alliance Girls’ had 25 candidates obtaining a mean grade of A Plain, the same as last year while The Kenya High had 21 candidates with mean grade of A Plain, one more than last year,” Matiang’i said.

The CS also noted that in this year’s results, female candidates performed better than male candidates in eight out of the 30 subjects. “These were English, Kiswahili, Mathematics Alternative B, Physics, Christian Religious Education, Home Science, Art and Design (442) and Electricity,” Matiang’i said. But male candidates performed better than female candidates in 20 out of the 30 subjects offered

The CS also announced that from 2017, the president had ordered Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) to replace index numbers with unique personal identifiers to be used at all educational level.

This year, a total of 577,253 candidates sat for the examination an increase of 54,383 candidates at 9,158 centers across the country.

Send Index Number to 22252 to get your KCSE 2016 Results