KCPE: Private schools still on top

Kirinyaga has emerged the best performer in the maiden ranking of counties in the national Standard Eight examinations that once again saw candidates from private schools dominate the top slots.

All the top 10 positions in the school rankings in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results released on Wednesday were taken by private schools, with Gilgil Hills Academy leading the pack with a mean score of 410 marks out of 500.

The best ranking public school, Kathigiri B Academic in Meru, with a mean score of 395.8, was not even among the top 10 schools nationally.

Star Sheikh Academy, a Machakos private school placed at number 10 nationally, has a mean score of 398 marks.

But a boy and a girl from Nairobi county led the standings even though the region itself was ranked 20th out of the 47 counties, indicating that the quality of education in the city is trailing rural regions.

The top candidates were Christine Muthoni Kagiri of Tender Care Academy in Komarok Estate and Martin Waiharo of Moi Educational Centre in South C. (READ: Nairobi girl and boy top KCPE exam)

Both candidates scored 442 marks, eight more than what last year’s candidates, Linus Ngatia and Collins Kiprop, who scored 434 marks.

The two are from private schools in what shows that public schools are still falling behind private academies, largely because of the challenges of Free Primary Education.

The 10,670 candidates in Kirinyaga county scored an average of 274.6 marks. Nandi county, with 5,000 more candidates than Kirinyaga, emerged second with an average of 265.9 marks.

Makueni, Uasin Gishu, Busia and Baringo emerged third, fourth, fifth and sixth in the rankings, respectively.

Elgeyo/Marakwet, Kisumu, Vihiga and Kakamega were the other counties in the top 10 listing, which has been introduced to replace the provincial ranking.

Counties from the coastal region performed poorly, taking the bottom five places. The best ranked county from the region, Mombasa, took position 15.

Kilifi, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kwale and Tana River were at the tail end, in that order. (READ: )

Populous Kisii county could only beat the five coastal regions, emerging position 42. (READ: Nyamira at bottom of the heap)

Overall performance in the national exams dropped compared to 2010.

Whereas 49.39 per cent of the candidates scored 250 marks and above in last year’s KCPE, the figure dropped to 48.38 per cent this year.

Better quality

Despite the drop, Education minister Sam Ongeri said, the quality of top marks obtained improved in this year’s examinations.