Little-known schools snatch coveted top positions in KCSE

Maseno School teachers celebrate after receiving most KCSE exam results on December 21, 2018. PHOTO | ONDARI OGEGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Kericho’s Moi Tea Girls was number three ahead of such giants as Alliance, Mang’u and Kenya High, while Kisima Mixed in Nyandarua emerged number seven.
  • Homa Bay’s Orero Boys was number nine, beating established schools like Maseno, Maranda and Starehe as Segero Adventist beat traditional star Kapsabet Boys.
  • Strathmore School, which had 84 candidates, recorded a performance index of 72.2 points while Moi High School Kabarak came second with 72.1

Little-known schools snatched the coveted top positions in the KCSE results released on Friday, even as Nairobi’s Strathmore emerged number one nationally.

Kericho’s Moi Tea Girls was number three ahead of such giants as Alliance, Mang’u and Kenya High, while Kisima Mixed in Nyandarua emerged number seven.

Homa Bay’s Orero Boys was number nine, beating established schools like Maseno, Maranda and Starehe as Segero Adventist beat traditional star Kapsabet Boys.

The compilation of 35 schools based on data collected from across the country shows public schools took 21 positions while private schools had 14 slots.

Strathmore School, which had 84 candidates, recorded a performance index of 72.2 points while Moi High School Kabarak came second with 72.1 and had 330 candidates.

16 CANDIDATES

Kabarak had 16 candidates in the top 100 best candidates across the country released by the Kenya National Examinations Council on Friday while Strathmore had none.

Last year, Strathmore was position 13 while Kabarak was position 11.

Moi Tea Girls emerged third best school with a performance index of 69.5 having registered 136 candidates.

Sing’ore Girls’ High School from Elgeyo-Marakwet County topped last year’s KCSE with a performance index of 69.9 per cent.

However, this time round it did not make it to the best performing 35 schools analysed by the Nation.

Knec did not rank schools despite President Uhuru Kenyatta having signed into law the Kenya National Examinations Council (Amendment) Bill in 2016.

MOST IMPROVED

The council instead released the list of best 100 candidates and most improved candidates across the county.

The law made it compulsory for the examiner to rank schools based on their performance in the national primary and secondary examinations. Ranking was scrapped by former Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi in 2014.

In the 2018 results, traditional giants such as Nairobi School and Lugulu Girls did not make it to the list.

Pangani Girls, which produced top candidate Juliet Otieno for the second year running, is ranked position 18 with 295 candidates.

In last year’s results, Pangani Girls produced the best candidate nationally, Karimi Naomi Kawira, who scored an A Plain grade of 87.011. Starehe Boys’ Centre, which over the years has been a top performer, is ranked 21 with a performance index of 62.7 and had 256 candidates.

TOP BOY

Maseno School, which produced the best male candidate, James Kaluna and who was second nationally with a performance index of 87.3, is ranked 24 with a performance index of 62.4 and had 436 candidates. Maranda School with 628 candidates is position 30 with a performance index of 61.

Seven extra county schools also made it to the list of institutions analysed by the Sunday Nation — Moi Tea Girls, Precious Blood Riruta, Orero Seconday, Agoro Sare, Kyeni Girls, Mutira Girls, and Metkei Secondary.

Alliance Girls’ High School, which last year was position three with 394 candidates, dropped to position four with a performance index of 69.4. It had 396 candidates. Light Academy Mombasa, which was second last year, dropped to position 33.

Light Academy Nairobi was ranked position 19 while Light Academy Mombasa was position 33, a drop from position two last year. Kenya High, which was position four last year, is position 19 this year.

Last year it had a performance index of 68.2 and this year it has a performance index of 67.2. Loreto High School, which was position five last year with a performance index of 68.1, is now ranked position 22 with a performance index of 62.6.

Alliance High School recorded an improvement in results this year with a performance index of 69.2 and had 399 candidates and was position five. Last year the school was ranked position nine with a performance index of 66.7.

Kisima Mixed Secondary in Nyandarua dropped by one position to position seven down from position six last year while Moi Girls Eldoret, which was position seven last year, moved to position 11 this year.

SEVEN CANDIDATES

Alliance High School produced the highest number of students in top 100 at 15 candidates while Moi High School Kabarak produced 10 candidates, Pangani Girls had two students, Mangu High school had four students, Lenana School had two, while Maseno School had six candidates.

Others were: Alliance Girls with three students and Kapsabet High School with seven candidates.

The number of candidates who scored a mean grade of A Plain rose from 142 (0.02 per cent) in the 2017 KCSE examination to 315 (0.05 per cent) in 2018.

The number of candidates with minimum university entry qualification of C+ and above is 90,377 (13.77pc) compared to 70,073 (11.38pc) in 2017.