After officially releasing the 2018 KCPE Results, the Ministry of Education is no mood to waste time and it is surely not in the mood to also keep the candidates at home for long.
The Ministry has revealed that selection of candidates who will join Form One in 2019 will start on December 3.
Speaking at Star of the Sea Primary School in Mombasa while releasing the 2018 KCPE exam results Monday, Ms Mohamed said that the selection will be done only once unlike previously when there has been a second selection.
The Education CS also promised that all the candidates that sat for this year’s examinations will get form 1 slots.
CS Amina’s remarks seem to support those of president Kenyatta who yesterday reiterated his recent promise that no candidate who sat for KCPE will miss admission to secondary school.
The President urged parents of KCPE candidates to ensure that their children transit to secondary schools because their positions are already guaranteed and the government will meet the cost of their education.
According to the Education CS, the overall performance of candidates has improved this year compared to last year. This year the top candidate scored 453 marks with 12,273 scoring above 400 marks.
Candidates who scored between 301- 400 marks were 228,414 which is higher than what was witnessed back in 2017.
Those who scored etween 201- 300 marks were 574,927 while those who scored 101-200 were 234,573.
Candidates that scored between 0-100 were 2,177.
The CS also noted that more female candidates sat for the exams compared to their male counterparts.
23 out of 47 counties registered more female candidates. They include, Kakamega, Nairobi, Meru, Bungoma, Vihiga, Siaya , Kitui, Embu, Makueni, Machakos, Nakuru, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Kisii, Nyamira, Tharaka-Nithi, Kericho, Uasin-Gishu, Kirinyaga , Trans-Nzoia, Nandi, Mombasa and Bomet.
A total of 1,052,364 candidates sat for the KCPE 2018 examinations with 527,294 (50.1%) being boys while 525,070 (49.9%) were girls.
Female candidates also performed better than their male counterparts in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language with the Male candidates performing better in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Religious Studies.
The Education CS also noted that this year candidates with special needs did better than last year with the top candidate scoring 446 marks.
Amina also called upon Parents, teachers and the community in general to take proper care of Children to avoid teenage pregnancies that overshadowed the just concluded national examinations with Kilifi County registering the highest number of teenage pregnancies.
The CS later stated clearly that Holiday tuition remains banned.
“I call upon parents, teachers and the community to take proper care of their children to avoid teenage pregnancies. Holiday tuition is still prohibited,” said Amina.
Should the government increase it’s financial allocation to secondary schools with the ever increasing number of candidates?