Private schools dominate in Coast as girls take 16 of 20 top slots nationally
FRIDAY
DECEMBER 30 2016
From
left: Maria Harunani (A), Khifa Nurani (B+) and Nawila Mohamed (B+) from Memon
Academy in Mombasa County after the release of the 2016 Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education exam results on December 29, 2016. PHOTO | WACHIRA MWANGI |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
Topping the charts in
Coast region were Light Academy Mombasa, Abu Hureira Academy, Memon High School
and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed.
Allidina Visram High
School, an institution with a long and rich history, also made it to the top
and so did Lamu Girls Secondary School.
Nationally, the top
school in the Kenya National Certificate of Secondary Education was Alliance
Girls which had 25 As.
Overall, girls topped the
charts, taking 16 out the top 20 places in the Form Four exams.
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By
DAVID ADUDA
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Private
schools dominated the top positions in the Coast region in this year’s Form
Four examinations whose results were released on Thursday.
Topping
the charts in the region were Light
Academy Mombasa, Abu Hureira Academy, Memon High School and Sheikh
Khalifa Bin Zayed Secondary School.
The
venerable Allidina Visram High School, an institution with a long and rich
history, also made it to the top and so did Lamu Girls Secondary School.
The
results were released by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i at the Shimo-La-Tewa High School in Mombasa, breaking with tradition. In the past, they were
released in Nairobi in the month of February, meaning that this year, they came
two months early.
Nationally,
the top school in the Kenya National Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)
was Alliance Girls which had 25 As. It was followed closely by Kenya High with
21 As. The other top performer was Mang’u High with 3As.
Although
girls generally performed better than boys, the best candidate nationally was
Jacob Wekesa of Alliance High School with straight As of 86.794 points.
The
greatest shocker of the day was the drastic drop in the number of candidates
with sterling grades. Only 141
candidates scored grade A countrywide, representing a sharp decline
from last year when 2,685 candidates scored the same grade.
NO RESULTS CANCELLED
In
fact, some schools had more than 200 grade As each, more than all the As
attained nationally this year.
Again
compared to last year, there were only 88,929 or 15.41 per cent of the
candidates attained grade C+, which is the minimum entry qualification to
university, compared to 169,492 last year.
This
means that some 485,196 candidates failed to make the university grade, out of
a total of 574,125 candidates who sat the exams this year.
Unlike
in the past and particularly last year, no results were cancelled for cheating.
Last year, results for 5,001 candidates were cancelled over irregularities; the
highest in the history of the national exams.
Releasing
the results on Thursday, Dr Matiang’i said the reforms initiated to clean the
mess in the setting, administration and marking of national exams had paid
dividends.
“Consistent
to the Ministry’s drive to rid the system of malpractices, I wish to report
that KCSE examinations were not leaked,” he said. “I wish to report that all
attempted cases of examination malpractices were detected and dealt with
appropriately before they could happen.”
Some
candidates will, however, have to wait longer before getting their results
because of suspected irregularities and other anomalies.
“We
should take note that there are a few candidates whose results have been held
back as Knec investigates the reasons as to why there were gaps in some of
their examination papers, including failure to sit the minimum number of
subjects or combinations as required,” said the CS.
Dr
Matiang’i, who joined in the Ministry late year, initiated a raft of measures,
starting with dissolving the Kenya National Examinations Council board and
sacking top officials, including Chief
Executive Joseph Kivilu and
replacing them with a new team under the chairmanship of Prof George Magoha, a
former vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi.
PRINCIPALS IN CHARGE
The CS
also reorganised
the school calendar, extending the second term and shortening the
third. This only left candidates to remain in schools during the examination
period. School principals were put in charge of exam administration and were
required to take responsibility in case of irregularities.
Similarly, marking
was centralised in
Nairobi and markers put under tight control, with 24-hour surveillance.
The
release of the results was as dramatic as it was uncharacteristic. It came just
a month after the candidates wrote their papers, just like was the case of the
Kenya Certificate of Primary Education whose results were released early this
month.
In
terms of performance by subjects, Dr Matiang’i reported that five recorded
significant improvement; art and design, computer studies, drawing and design,
woodwork and Kenyan sign language. However, 20 subjects were performed poorer
than last year, including English, Kiswahili, mathematics, biology, physics,
chemistry and general science. Girls did better than boys in eight out of the
30 subjects, meaning that boys performed better in 22.
Prof
Magoha said this year’s results reflected the true capability of the
candidates. He described the previous trend where so many candidates scored As
as tragic.
“It is
unimaginable to have a system where candidates get fake grades and end up doing
courses like medicine, where they have to handle people’s lives,” he said.
“That is setting the stage for tragedy.”
The
results were released after a briefing to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who
directed that they be released immediately.
President
Kenyatta also directed Knec to stop the practice of giving index numbers to
schools and candidates and replace it with student identification numbers to be
used throughout the education system.
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