EDUCATION MINISTER HON SAM ONGERI RELEASES LAST YEAR’S KCSE RESULTS.

EDUCATION MINISTER HON SAM ONGERI RELEASES LAST YEAR’S KCSE RESULTS.

By: Timothy Makokha

The occasion was graced by the education minister, assistant ministers in education ministry, and KNEC officials.  In attendance were senior TSC officials, KLB officials among other civil servants.

KNEC secretary Paul Wasanga said so far 3.7 million candidates have been examined since the beginning of KCSE , this year’s number being 413, 177 candidates.  He also said that last year was the first time KNEC partnered with Kenya anticorruption in supervising of exams to ensure transparency.

The KNEC secretary warned Kenyans from using revision past papers and marking schemes from unauthorized dealers and added that for this reason KNEC has published pamphlets on past exams for revision purposes to ensure integrity of exams is upheld. He further expressed his disappointment with the fact that mobile phones were still witnessed in exam rooms

The minister of education hon. Sam ongeri mentioned that the 2011 candidates are the first group of candidates since the launching of free secondary education was started in Kenya in the year 2008. This free day school education has enabled many to be re-admitted in schools after a massive drop out. The program was geared towards achieving educational millennium development goals.

Hon ongeri urged Kenyans to say positive things about our nation. ‘Say positive things about our nation’, he continued ‘we are being recognized elsewhere rather than our home’.

The minister urged school managers to consider available facilities before registering candidates for exams. ‘Sitting for computer exams in cyber cafes is not a good show’, he said.

He also encouraged KCPE candidates to choose national schools since better performing school were upgraded to be national. The promoting of such schools to national status has enabled counties to enjoy benefits of national schools unlike in the past when schools of such magnitude were scarce.

The minister noted that both boys and girls candidature increased drastically last year although the number of boys is greater than the number of girls. All counties recorded a higher number of boys except for Kerinyaga County where the number of girls was greater than that of boys. He then called upon stakeholders to address gender issues especially where the disparity is too high.

General trend reveals that this year’s results are much better than last year’s. Improved subjects include mathematics, physics, biology, Kiswahili and other 11 optional subjects. English was poorly performed. The minister blamed sheng’/slang usage among students that has caused poor performance in English. The minister associated the improvement in mathematics with the research about poor performance of the subject that was done in 2009 and results tabled by the education PS  prof. Ole Kyiapi.

The minister as well urged the director quality assurance to look in the matter of laboratory equipment in high schools to avoid cases of candidates using korobois for chemistry practical.  The need for quality early childhood education was highlighted by the minister who also urged teacher training colleges and universities to put more emphasis on humanities. Teacher training colleges were also urged to equip teachers with quality language (English/Swahili) in order for the teachers to deliver the same in class to learners.

Setting the university entry at C+ and above has increased university enrolment. The minister urged the government and stake holders to invest more in middle level colleges to cater for those candidates who miss university entry.

Concerning exam irregularity, the education minister condemned, parents, teachers, university students who had colluded with candidates to cheat in exams. ‘Chewing and swallowing prepared notes is even harmful to candidates’, he said. No exam irregularities were reported in Nyeri, Turkana, Taita Taveta, Nyandarua, Nyamira, West Pokot, and Machakos counties.  In overall 154 exam centers were noted with cheating. Lastly, the education minister condemned cheating in exams and requested KNEC officials to liaise with the education PS and investigate all cheating cases.