More than half the candidates who sat this year’s Form Four examination failed to get a grade that can allow pursue a professional course.
This is despite the government spending close to Sh20 billion on the students in the last four years.
An analysis of the results shows that 343,897 candidates scored grade D and below.
It means they cannot apply for professional courses or even be employed as police officers since the entry grade to the service is D+.
An analysis of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results, which were released on Friday, indicates that 147,918 students attained grade D, some 165,139 had D- while 30,840 candidates scored E.
The 40,707 students who scored C and 71,047 who had C- will be able to join technical and vocational training institutes and teachers training colleges.
This year, the number of candidates who scored the minimum university entry mean grade of C+ and above is 90,377 or 13.77 per cent of the total number of those who sat the tests.
In 2017, the number was 70,073 or just 11.38 per cent of the candidates.
The total number of students who sat the examination this year was 660,204, with 338,628 being male while 321,576 were female, representing 51.29 per cent and 48.71 per cent respectively.
It means only one in seven KCSE examination candidates achieved the university entry grade.
The number translates to 15 per cent of the 2018 KCSE test candidates.
Last year, education experts, teachers unions and other stakeholders raised concerns following the mass failure and called for investigations.
In the 2017 KCSE examination, some 314,035 candidates scored grade D and below.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers Union complained that the number could not proceed to university and college or even secure gainful employment.
The group is now joined another 295,463 boys and girls.
Mass mass failure in the last three years has also raised questions on the government’s hyped plan to achieve a 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schooling.