When Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i released the 2017 KCSE results on Wednesday, he revealed that there was a significant drop in the number of candidates proceeding to university.
Dr Matiang'i lamented that a significant number of students did not give elaborate responses to questions and often listed answers when they were expected to explain or discuss.
“The examiners reported that some of the questions that tested candidates’ ability to DISCUSS or EXPLAIN certain concepts they had learnt were poorly answered, with many candidates either listing or providing sketchy answers,” stated the CS.
[caption caption="Education CS Fred Matiang'i"]
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This was blamed on over-reliance on 'sketchy' revision books and past papers during revision.
In the past three years, use of sheng (colloquial language), failure to follow instructions, poor time management and rush to answer questions before understanding them were listed as some of the reasons a number of students did not perform well.
The Education CS further added that inadequate language skills contributed to poor results in 2017 but promised that the government would supply textbooks directly to schools to ensure candidates are fully prepared for national examinations.
“For this reason, the Ministry has come up with a direct-to-school policy on book distribution that will ensure our public schools attain the 1:1 book ratio.
"This will also eliminate middlemen who collude with corrupt school officials to steal from the government and our children.
“With the government’s plan to supply textbooks directly to schools, candidates should be adequately prepared to answer questions in all areas appropriately,” he remarked.
Sing'ore Girls' High School emerged first nationally with a performance index of 69.9 points beating Light Academy of Mombasa to second place with 69.1 points.
In third place was Alliance Girls’ High School with 68.6 points and Kenya High came fourth with 68.2 points.
Loreto Girls’ School, Limuru, rounded off the top five with a performance index of 68.1 points.
Kisima Mixed Sec – Nyandarua, Moi Girls High School- Eldoret, Kapsabet Boys-Nandi, Alliance High School-Kiambu and Pangani Girls-Nairobi also made the top 10 in that order.
[caption caption="KCSE 2017 Top Candidate Naomi Kawira"]
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