Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, while releasing the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results noted that there was a general improvement in the overall performance.
Whereas a number of little-known schools produced impressive grades, a majority of the learners fell below the university entrance grade of C+.
Majority of the candidates scored below the university cutoff points with D- (minus) being the most dominant grade. A total of 187,264 candidates scored D-, making it the grade with the highest number of students in 2021 class.
Only 1,138 candidates scored grade A in the 2021 KCSE exam out of which 349 were females and 789 males. This represented a 0.14 per cent of the total candidates and is an increase from 0.12 per cent in 2020.
The number of candidates with the minimum university grade C+ and above increased from 143,140 in 2020 to 145,145. This adds 2,005 more to the University admission list in 2021.
The KCSE 2021 results report recommended investing more in the TVET institutions with a significant 39.27 per cent of the candidates set to enroll in various diploma and certificate courses.
Additionally, Education CS George Magoha urged Kenyans to debunk the 'university admission as a success culture'.
Kenyans anticipated significant improvement in the 2021 KCSE but there was a decline in subject improvement analysis.
"In the 2021 KCSE examination, 11 subjects recorded a significant improvement in performance, compared to 19 subjects that recorded a significant improvement in performance in 2020," Magoha stated.
Magoha has noted the government had channeled more resources to sub-county schools, terming them "the future of education in this country".
"People have this idea that only students from national schools excel, which is true given the high levels of discipline, but that can be adopted by the sub-county schools and perform well," Magoha stated.
He recognised the best performing students from sub-county schools by name for their success despite their schools' status.
Below is the breakdown of the overall 2021 KCSE grades:
