Performance in English, Geography improves

A total of 13 subjects recorded a significant improvement in performance in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i identified the subjects that recorded improvement as English, Mathematics Alternative A and Geography.

Last year, five subjects recorded a significant improvement.

He added 13 subjects recorded a significant decline in performance in examination compared to 20 last year.

In terms of gender, female candidates performed better than male candidates in six subjects.

SUBJECTS
Male candidates performed better than female candidates in 23 subjects.

Female candidates did better than male candidates in English, Kiswahili, CRE, Home Science, Art and Design and Electricity.

Female candidates did not register for Metalwork.

Candidates were examined in 31 subjects using 76 papers.

A total of 611,952 candidates sat the examination compared to 574,125 candidates in 2016.

This represents an increase of 37,827 candidates (6.59 per cent).

GENDER PARITY
Of the candidates, 315,630 were male, while 296,322 were female, representing 51.58 per cent and 48.42 per cent of the total candidature respectively.

“This is an indication that the country is on the right path towards achieving gender parity in examinations enrolment, and indeed at the secondary school level,” the CS said.

The examination was taken in 9,701 examination centres across the country, compared to 9,154 in 2016. This represented an increase of 547 examination centres (5.9 per cent).

Dr Matiang’i commended 15 counties that had more female than male candidates compared to 11 counties in 2016.

These were Taita Taveta, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Kiambu, Machakos, Kitui, Meru, Makueni, Tharaka Nithi, Laikipia, Elgeyo Marakwet, Vihiga and Kisumu counties.

UNDERAGE

A total of 1,407 candidates with special needs sat the exam.

“The highest number of candidates with special needs who sat the examination comprised those who were physically impaired (513), compared to 2016 when the highest category was that of the hearing impaired (432),” he said.

The CS said there was a slight decrease in the percentage of underage candidates (below the age of 16 years), from 2.21 per cent in 2016 to 2.04 per cent in the 2017 .

“As was the case in 2016, Kisii County had the highest number of underage candidates (1,062) followed by Bomet (865). The counties with the lowest cases of under-age candidates were Lamu (07) and Isiolo (14).

The highest percentage of candidates registered for the 2017 KCSE examination was within the ideal age bracket of between 17 and 20, constituting 81.91 per cent (504,223).

Nairobi, Kilifi and Kakamega counties recorded the highest number of candidates above 23 years of age with 1,470, 1,457 and 1,285 candidates respectively, a trend which was replicated in 2016.