Good KCSE indeed can be improved upon

As Education Cabinet secretary Jacob Kaimenyi released 2014 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results, several positive aspects came to the fore.  The most striking, exam irregularities—which have been a major concern over the years—reduced, indicating that the measures the Kenya National Examinations Council has been implementing have began to bear fruit.

According to Kaimenyi,there was a 22% drop in cheating cases. While it is not possible to tell how specific schools performed in the absence of ranking, the revelation that general performance improved greatly is good news to education stakeholders. The Cabinet secretary said out of the 450,000 candidates who sat the exams last year, 149, 717 attained C+ and above, which means 30.8% of the candidates qualified to join university.

In the year 2013, the number stood at 27.5%. However, there is still a lot of work to be done given that those who failed to qualify for university admission stands at nearly 70%. While they have the option of joining middle-level colleges, the government needs to audit the results to determine how the trajectory can be maintained.

At the same time, while female candidates outperformed male candidates in at least five of the 31 subjects examined, the gender gap in terms of overall general performance is still high and needs to be closed further. According to the results, the number of girls who scored higher than C+ stood at 61,418 or 41% compared to 88,299 male candidates which translates to 59%.

More male candidates 69%also scored grade A compare to 30.6% of their female counterparts. A look at the results also indicates that none of the subjects in which girls beat boys is a science subject, having only performed better than boys in English, Kiswahili, Christian Religious Education (CRE), Home Science and Art and Design.

This is an issue that should concern stakeholders since it greatly influences degree choices at the university level. The rise in the number of students with special needs attaining university admission grades is also a positive achievement.According to the results, of the 1,090 students with Special Needs Education (SNE), who sat the exam, 180 obtained a mean grade of C+ and above, with five scoring A plain and 14 A-minus.

The Education ministry should continue to put in place measures to make the education environment friendly to such students to fulfil the constitutional obligation to provide access to basic education to all Kenyan children without discrimination as well as to ensure they attain full cycle education.

Reference :mediamaxnetwork.co.ke