After Rawlings Odhiambo from Kakamega Hill and Olive Mwea from Riara Group of Schools tied as top students of KCPE 2018 with 453 marks each, it was expected that the nations attention shall solely focus on them.
That wasn’t to be as the Country’s head of state led other Kenyans in celebrating even those candidates that some might deem as failures. According to KNEC, KCPE pass mark is 250 out of the possible 500.
The President though found joy in the fact that 70 % of this years candidates scored over 200 marks hence marking a very tremendous improvement from what was witnessed last year.
The President was quick to assure the candidates that they shall all get transition to High School come next year.
“I congratulate all pupils who sat for KCPE 2018, parents, guardians, the Ministry of Education & stakeholders who ensured a credible process. I am delighted that over 70% of these pupils got 200 marks & above. I want to reassure that all the pupils will get placement in form one,” said the President.
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Examination results were officially released yesterday by Education CS Amina Mohammed from the Star of the Sea Primary School in Mombasa.
According to the Education CS, the overall performance of candidates improved this year compared to last year 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 between 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.
“We will not compromise the safety of our children for a few extra hours of tuition that actually does not help them,” added the CS.
The CS further noted that only 4 candidates were found guilty of impersonation and therefore their results were cancelled. The 4 will however get a chance to re-sit for the examinations come next year.
Do you think the government has put in place proper measures to ensure a smooth transition of all this years candidates to High School?