Parents, candidates in anxious wait for KCPE results
Kivasu Rita Mwongoli, 15, sitting for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education mathematics paper at NYS Huduma Academy – Yatta Machakos County on Monday, March 7, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The marking, compilation and analysis of the KCPE results was completed last week.
- According to the Kenya National Examinations Council, 1,225,507 candidates sat the exam.
Thousands of parents and their children are on tenterhooks as Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha prepares to release the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results.
They will either be released today or tomorrow before the focus shifts to placement of learners in secondary schools. The marking, compilation and analysis of the KCPE results was completed last week.
“We can more or less work with Monday or Tuesday, according to the President’s diary,” Prof Magoha said last week.
The CS assured candidates that the examinations factored in the conditions under which they learnt for the last two years. He said that they would be marked “with a human face”.
According to the Kenya National Examinations Council, 1,225,507 candidates sat the exam. They were 33,755 more than those who sat the 2020 paper. This will be a concern for public secondary schools, many of which are congested, putting a strain on resources.
The candidates will join the 10,359 public schools and 1,600 private institutions. The government has for the last four years enforced a 100 per cent transition policy to secondary school.
Learners were forced to stay out of school for months in 2020 because of Covid-19.
Top-performing schools
They were later taken through a crash programme to make up for the lost time. As a result, the school terms and holidays have been shortened. The programme will go on until the year end, with the regular calendar resuming next January.
After the results, candidates and their families will have a month to prepare to join secondary school. Schools are scheduled to begin the new academic year on April 25. However, as has been tradition, Form Ones will report a week later.
In the reorganised calendar, first term will take 10 weeks, ending on July 1. The learners will have a three-day half-term break between May 26 and 29.
Competition will be high among the leading candidates for top-performing institutions, which are mostly national and extra-county schools. Schools like Pangani Girls’ High, Alliance High and The Kenya High are usually preferred by top students because of their performance in national exams.
Starehe Boys’ Centre; Starehe Girls’ Centre; Moi Forces Academy, Nairobi; Moi Forces, Lanet; Utumishi Academy, Nakuru; Utumishi Girls’ , Nakuru; and Moi Tea Girls’ pre-select their students before the national exercise.
The computerised system of selection relies on the learner’s merit, choice of school, position in their county, as well as the capacity at the selected school.
During recent placement exercises, candidates have been left dissatisfied after failing to secure their preferred schools.
