More students to join university this year

An additional 17,393 candidates in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam qualified for admission to university compared to 2019.

In last year’s exam, 143,140 candidates scored C+ and above in the 2020 exams attaining the minimum university entry requirement. This was 19 per cent of the 747,161 candidates who sat the examination across the 10,565 centres in the country.

In 20119, 125,747 candidates attained C+ and above, representing 18 per cent of the 697,222 candidates that year. A total of 752,891 students registered for the exam but 5,730 missed it.

Good performance

Speaking while announcing the results at Mitihani House yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha praised the candidates for the good performance despite the disruption the Covid-19 pandemic caused. He said 893 candidates scored straight As, up from the 627 recorded in 2019.

“This is the clearest indicator that the candidates have performed at par or better compared to 2019 despite the negative effects of Covid-19,” Prof Magoha said. The CS said the remaining 604,021 will be able to progress to higher levels including technical and vocational education and teachers and medical training colleges. This, he said, is under the government’s 100 per cent transition policy.

Despair

“I assure all the candidates who will receive their results today that they have a brighter future full of hope and shorn of despair. All candidates have a place in our education story,” he said.

Meanwhile, more candidates scored straight As in this year’s exam compared to the previous year.

In last year’s examination, 893 candidates, representing 0.12 percent of the entire group, scored As compared to 627 (0.09 percent) in 2019.

According to the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec), 721 of the top performers are from national schools, 97 from extra-county schools, two from county schools, three from sub-county schools while 70 were from private schools.

A total of 6,420 candidates have scored A-, 14,427 have scored B+ , 38,194 have scored B- and  57,999 C+ . In 2019, 495 candidates who scored A plain were from national schools, 61 were from extra-county schools, four were from sub-county schools while 67 were from private schools. That year, county schools did not produce A plain candidates.

Candidates who scored A- were 5,796, those with B+ were 13,366 while those with B plain were 24,478.

A total of 24,478 scored B- while 35,340 candidates, scored a C +.

In terms of gender, boys have performed better and produced more candidates with C+ and above. 

A total of 143,140 candidates score C+ and above, attaining the university entry mark, compared to the 125,747 recorded in the 2019 exams.

Boys also scored more As than girls, with 589 candidates compared to 304 candidates respectively.

A total of 4,049 boys scored A-compared to the 2,371 girls who scored the same grade.

Improvement

Some 14,932 boys scored B plain compared to 10,275 girls, 21,845 boys had B- compared to 16,349 girls, and 30,924 boys scored C+ compared to 27,075 girls with the same grade.

In 2019, boys also performed better than girls with a total of 358 boys scoring A plain compared to 269 girls. A total of 3,624 boys scored A- while 2,172 girls scored the same grade.

For special needs candidates, only two — a male and a female — managed to score an A plain grade in the 2020 exam. This was an improvement on the 2019 KCSE results in which no special needs candidate scored an A plain.

On special needs candidates, 223 obtained an overall grade C+ and above in the 2020 KCSE examination compared to 127 candidates in 2019.

In the 2020 results, 20 special needs candidates comprising 16 males and 4 girls scored A-, 37 candidates — among them 28 boys and nine girls — scored B+, 46 candidates comprising 30 boys and 16 girls scored B, while 75 candidates comprising 46 boys and 29 girls scored B-.

A total of 103 candidates — 59 boys and 44 — girls scored C+.

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