Day schools defy odds to post good grades in KCSE

Day secondary schools will take more students to university than county boarding institutions, the recently released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results show.

A total of 31,497 students from these institutions, also called sub-county schools, qualified for university compared to 18,175 from county boarding schools.

The day schools produced more students in every grade than boarding ones despite poor infrastructure, teacher shortage and many other challenges.

Sub-county schools produced three grade A students while county schools had two.

The sub-county schools also performed better than the county ones in the 2019 national tests.

That year, the schools had four students who scored A while the county ones had no such grade.

In the 2020 KCSE examination, day schools had 189 A-, compared to the 116 candidates from the county schools.

Those who scored grade B+ in the sub-county school category were 1,053, while 667 come from county schools.

Some 3,665 learners in sub-county schools scored B, compared to 2,323 in county institutions.

A further 8,998 candidates from day schools posted grade B- against 5,254 in county schools.

Grade C+ students in day schools were 17,589, while county boarding institutions had 9,813.

There were also more students with grade C and C- in sub-county schools compared to boarding learning institutions.

Basic requirements

Day school principals who spoke to the Nation said the institutions lack basic requirements such as classrooms, furniture, laboratories and learning materials.

Some students only get an opportunity to see and use test tubes, microscopes and other laboratory equipment in their final term in Form Four when they visit neighbouring schools.

The kits are necessary for subjects like biology, chemistry and physics

“We should not compare a learner in a school that lacks a laboratory to another in a national, extra county and county school. They are miles apart,” a headteacher in Samburu county said.

Performance in some of these schools has shown that their students have potential to get high grades.

The schools usually admit students with low marks in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

Form most, the pass mark for admission is usually 250 out of a possible 500, and below.

With the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school policy, these institutions even have boys and girls who scored less than 100 marks in the KCPE tests.

Before the transition policy, children with such marks were usually admitted to vocational schools.

When announcing the KCSE exam results on Monday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha took time to celebrate some of these schools and students for posting good grades.

They include Saye Mixed and Wiobiero Secondary Schools.

“The schools admitted children with low KCPE examination mean scores. They did a commendable job at improving the children’s overall mean performance to inspiring levels,” Prof Magoha said.

Big improvements

Other sub-county secondary schools named by the Cabinet Secretary are Kimargis, St Teresa’s secondary- Bikeke, Olderkesi, Habaswein Mixed and Ademasajida.

Students in those schools scored less than 200 marks in their KCPE tests but emerged among the 143,140 candidates who scored C+ in the KCSE exam four years later.

The 10 students celebrated for scoring less than 200 marks in the primary examination but securing university entry mark are from sub-county schools.

They include Dennis Bett Cheruiyot from Kimargis Secondary School who had a mean grade of B- despite having only 190 marks in KCPE, Tom Maluti Miti from St Teresa’s Bikeke who also had a B- despite scoring 199 marks in primary school and Charity Kipee Siomit of Olderkesi Secondary School who had a C+ yet she scored 168 in her final primary examination.

Others were Abdullahi Daud Maalim from Ademasajida Mixed Day School who had a mean grade of C+ despite scoring 137 marks and Joseph Siololo Parmaari from Olderkesi School who scored a B- and had 193 marks in KCPE tests.

“The lesson from this is that the 100 per cent transition policy is indeed a game-changer,” Prof Magoha said on Monday.

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