Anxiety has gripped parents and students after indications emerged that this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results could be released this week.
The Sunday Standard has established that by end of last week, only six centres were yet to complete marking, with most of the process complete.
Sources in Government said Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i was likely to release the results for the 615,773 candidates before Christmas Day.
“Be on the look-out because as things stand now, the remaining centres are about to complete marking and processing of marks will soon be done with,” said the source who is familiar with the process.
The official who spoke in confidence said compilation of most of the results was complete.
There are only seven days left to Christmas, with December 24 being a Sunday. This means the results are likely to be out between tomorrow and Saturday. A number of teachers who participated in the marking told the Sunday Standard that by last week most of the marking centres had been closed.
Parents and candidates yesterday expressed mixed reactions over the number of quality grades that the students would record this year.
Some said they expected last year’s trends to hold with a few quality grades, while others said they expected improved grades because of negligible examination irregularities registered in the examination.
“We are just waiting and hoping that results will improve this year because cases of cheating were isolated,” said a parent.
Parents and candidates’ fears could hold some weight going by an analysis of KCSE examination results for the last three years. The results released last year shocked many Kenyans as only 141 candidates scored the coveted grade ‘A’ compared to 2,685 who attained the grade in 2015.
Only 4,645 candidates scored grade A–, 10,975 attained B+ while 17,216 scored B plain. A total of 55,952 candidates scored B– and C+ in last year’s results.
Overall, only 88,929 candidates attained the university entry grade of C+ and above compared to 169,492 the previous year.
And of the top 20 best performing candidates nationally in last year’s examinations, 16 were girls.
Decline in performance
A look at last year’s KCSE results shows that 20 subjects recorded a decline in performance compared to 10 in 2015.
Art & Design, Computer Studies, Drawing & Design, Woodwork and Kenyan Sign Language were the most improved subjects.
A Ministry of Education report on KCSE examination performance between 2014-2016 reveals that the number of candidates who score grade A has continued to drop, with the lowest score recorded last year. The report is dated July 18, 2017.
The year 2014 recorded the highest number of students who scored grade A, with some 3,042 candidates posting the grade.
This came down to 2,685 in
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