Private schools in Mombasa continued their dominance in the KCSE exams announced by Education CS Ezekiel Machogu on Monday.
Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Secondary School led with 9 straight As and 38 A minus grades.
The school had a total of 217 candidates with 213 of them scoring the minimum required grade for university entrance of C+.
Some 62 candidates scored B+, 55 scored B, 37 scored B- while 12 scored C+ with one student scoring a C-.
Among the school’s top performers was Abdallah Issa Timamy, son of Lamu Governor Issa Timamy who scored an A of 83 points.
Issa, who said that he wants to pursue law at the University of Nairobi or Strathmore, said that he draws his inspiration from his father.
“I would like to pursue law and follow in the footsteps of my father,” he said.
The school registered a mean score of 9.42 with a transition rate of 98.1 per cent.
The school Principal Sheikh Rishad Rajab lauded the good performance of the new grading system adding that team work and hard work from students, teachers, the school’s board of management and parents made it possible.
“Our target for this year was to have a mean score of 9.5. We were hoping for a 100 per cent university transition, but we are happy with the performance of the candidates,” Rajab said.
At Light academy, the school registered a mean score of 10.2 up from 9.89 last year with two out of their 66 candidates scoring A plain.
The school had 20 A-, B+ (33), B (10) and only one student scored a mean grade of B.
“I am grateful for the cooperation between the teachers, students and the parents. We are proud and very happy with the performance.
“We expect the same performance this year because we have very bright students,” said Yerkin Bey, the school principal.
One of the top students Nuru Said Abubakar said that she wants to be a doctor as she called on this year’s candidates to remain disciplined and focus on their studies.
“Put God first and your teachers close. For now you need your teachers more and also respect your parents too. Work hard so that you get good results,” she said.
Haniel Mengistu