Contrary to assertions by Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, boys performed better than girls in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE0 exams.
According to the CS’ own report, the overall number of boys who scored C+ and above and hence qualify for university admission stands at 41,687 as compared to 28,386 for girls.
While Pangani Girls produced the top student, Naomi Karimi Kawira, who scored 87.011 points to lead 15 other girls in occupying the top 20 slots nationally, the report indicates that the number of straight As stood at 81 as compared to 61 for girls.
A total of 1,813 boys scored A- as compared to 901 for girls while those who scored B+ stood at 4,596 for boys and 2,748 for girls.
For B grade, the number of boys who attained the grade were 7,738 while that of girls stood at 4,890. A total of 11,631 boys scored B- as compared to 7,754 girls.
Similarly, the number of boys who got C+. which is the university entry point, were 15,828 as compared to 12,032 girls.
Here is the overall national grade county summary as contained in Dr Matiang’i’s report:
The issue has generated intense national debate with many expressing fears that society is favouring the girlchild to the disadvantage of the boychild in almost all aspects of life.
The number of students who sat the KCSE exam in 2017 was 611,952, representing a 6.59% increase from the 574,125 who sat the exam in 2016. In terms of gender, male students numbered 315,630, representing 51.58 per cent while girls, at 48.42%, numbered 296,322.
Stakeholders have questioned the crediblity of the results with NASA leader Raila Odinga calling for a task force to probe what happened.
“Close to 90 per cent of the KCSE candidates have failed. This is very worrying. As the country commits resources to free learning and scales up enrolment, the whole purpose and value for money is lost when close to 90 per cent of those students eventually fail,” Raila said in a statement.
Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori claims the results were released before all papers had been marked.
Accrding to Matiang’i, 13 subjects recorded significant improvement with English, Mathematics Alternative A and Geography leading in scores compared to five last year.
Comparatively, another 13 subjects recorded a significant decline in performance in examination compared to 20 last year.
In terms of gender, female candidates performed better than male candidates in six subjects. Male candidates performed better than female candidates in 23 subjects.
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