Private schools topped the charts in the Coast region in this year’s Form Four examinations.
Sheikh Khalifa, a private school, maintained its pole position as one of the region’s top performing schools, with more than six top students in the region’s top 20 list. Last year, it topped with 62.19 points, to be 20 nationally, followed by Light Academy with 60.72 points.
IMPROVED
Other top performing schools in the region include Aga Khan High School in Mombasa, Bura Girls’ High School (Tana River), Kenyatta High School (Taita-Taveta), Murray Girls’ High School (Taita), and Dr Aggrey High School (Taita-Taveta).
The top candidate, Kulaita Abbas Soud of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, scored an “A” with 83 points and was followed by Abdikafar Hassan Issack who had an “A” of 82 points and Rehana Hussein Taib with an “A” of 81 points.
Memon High had two candidates with “A”s. They were Fatima Mohammed Abdulkarim (81) and Said Salame Ali (81). Sheikh Khalifa had other top “A” graders in the name of Fatma Ramadhan Ali and Majird Mohammed Ali, both with 80 points.
However, the best overall school in this year’s exams was Kenya High School, which registered 76 straight “A”s in the tests where candidates recorded greatly improved performance and cheating declined remarkably, proving that the strict regulations being applied are paying dividends.
STERLING
The school also produced the best female candidate, Barasa Maryanne Njeri, who had grade “A” of 87.087 performance index. But Kapsabet Boys produced the overall best candidate, Buluma Tony Wabuko, who obtained grade “A” with a performance index of 87.159.
In third position was Aboge David Odhiambo of Kapsabet Boys, with an “A” of 87.080, Anthony Owuor Ochieng of Maseno School, with an “A” of 87.000, Mathuri Natasha Wawira of The Kenya High, with an “A” of 86.961, Kizito Ezra Sikuta Moi High School, Kabarak, “A” of 86.960 and Long’ali M. Chepengat of Alliance Girls, “A” of 86.924.
The others among the top 10 ”Ä” listers were: Ndathi Hellen Njoki of Moi Forces Academy, Lanet, (86.99) and Laura Chelngat Ruto of St Brigit Kiminini (86.853).
With 76 straight “A”s, The Kenya High School, which has consistently demonstrated sterling performance, had the highest number from a single school in the past four years.
The school’s deputy headteacher for Academics, Ms Jane Faith Nyasia, attributed the brilliant performance to hard work.
CONSISTENTLY
“The girls worked hard, the teachers worked hard, the PTA and BOG all worked hard,” she said.
In second place was Kapsabet which had 49 “A”s, Alliance High School 48, Moi High School Kabarak 30 and Alliance Girls 27. The other top performing schools were Maryhill Girls with 25 As, Maseno School, Nairobi School and Mangu each with 23 and Moi Girls, Eldoret 21.
Alliance Girls’ Principal Virginia Gitonga, in an interview, was upbeat that the hard work of the candidates, teachers and parents had paid off. The school has consistently produced top grades under the new regime of tight examination administration.
Last year, the best candidate was Otieno Irine Juliet of Pangani Girls, who obtained grade “A” with a performing index of 87.644 while in 2017, it was Kirimi Naomi Kawira, also of Pangani Girls, who obtained “A” with a performing index of 87.011. But this year, Pangani did not present candidates among the top 10.
SPOON–FED
There was marked improvement in performance. A total of 627 candidates scored grade ‘A’, double last year’s, which was 315. Similarly, the number of candidates who qualified to join universities shot up from 90,377 in 2018 to 125,746.
A total of 5,796 candidates got grade A-, 13,366 B+, 24,478 B, 35,340 B- and 46,139, C+.
The increased number of those who scored grade C+ gives a new lease of life to universities whose fortunes had been dwindling rapidly in the past four years as numbers of qualifiers took a nosedive. Hard hit were private universities who had to scramble for the few students who opted to join them as public universities took in all the qualifiers.
Releasing the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results Wednesday, Prof George Magoha observed that the strict administration of examinations had created sanity in performance. Candidates were now able to work on their own and score what they deserved unlike in the past when they were drilled and spoon-fed to pass exams.
CHEATING
Since 2016, the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) and the Education Ministry have consistently enforced tough regulations that have seen cheating drop drastically and schools forced to do the right thing, teach and guide instead of drilling candidates.
Prof Magoha, who was previously the chairman of the council until his appointment to head the Education Ministry early this year, said: “Teachers are now preparing candidates better and learners are concentrating in their studies knowing well the playing field is level.”
He added: “Our enhanced measures of fighting examination cheating in schools have succeeded. I wish to state that we have now stamped out overt cases of cheating that were rampant in our education system.”
ENROLMENT
A total of 667,222 candidates sat the examinations comprising 355,782 boys and 341,440 girls, representing a gender ratio of 51:49. But an increasingly emerging trend is the high enrolment of girls in some counties compared to boys. At least 17 counties had more girls than boys, including Meru, Vihiga, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi and Kisumu. Others were Uasin Gishu, Murang’a, Machakos, Kitui, Taita-Taveta, Makueni, Kirinyaga, Kakamega, Kwale and Nandi.
An analysis of the results showed that national schools produced the bulk of A grades, 495 while county schools had 61 and sub-county schools four. Private schools had 67.