No irregularities realised in 2016 Form Four exams, says Matiang'i

There were no irregularities in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said on Thursday.

Announcing the results in Mombasa, Dr Matiang’i also said girls trounced boys, taking 16 of the top 20 slots nationally.

Dr Matiang’i lauded two girls’ schools — Alliance Girls High and Kenya High — as being consistent in their performance, which he said was reflected in the results.

“Last year, Alliance Girls scored 25 A's and this year the same. While last year, Kenya High had 20 A's, this year they had 21,” he said.

Dr Matiang’i said that due to reforms in the administration of examinations, for the first time in their history, there were no irregularities.

Of the over 500,000 students who sat the exam, only 141 had straight As, with 88,929 scoring between A and C+. Those with A- were 4,655, while 10,975 had B+.

The performance of schools that had high grades last year dropped drastically, with some that had more than 200 straight As getting less than 10.

“At the beginning of this year, we embarked on reforms aimed at streamlining the management of examinations.

“The fundamental objective was to restore the credibility of the academic certificates of our learners at all levels,” he said.

He said the multi-sectoral reforms, ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta, were anchored in the belief the country had the capacity to deliver credible results.

INCREDIBLE EFFORTS

“The arduous task of addressing all the challenges that had bedevilled our examination system was neither expected to be a walk in the park nor achievable overnight,” he added.

“I am extremely elated to report that so far, without asking for additional human resources, the government managed to put in place some of the most convincing overt and covert measures that led to the delivery of clean KCPE and KCSE exams,” the CS said.

“We managed to make these impressive strides, thanks to the incredible efforts of my colleagues from the ministries of Interior and Coordination of National Government and Information and Communication Technology,” he said.

Dr Matiang’i said the ministry had already released guidelines for the 2017 academic calendar, which would be strictly enforced, with teachers required to stay away from school except those involved in administering examinations.

“As in 2016, the role of principals and head teachers as centre managers will be upheld. We would not be having results worth celebrating had the principals and head teachers not delivered to the highest standards,” he said.

Kenya National Examinations Council chairman George Magoha said previous delays in releasing results allowed the agency’s workers to collude with cartels to “doctor” results.

“It would come as a shock that a student who scored straight A failed to understand engineering,” said Prof Magoha.

“Today’s results prove there was a problem in our education system,” he said.