Pupils complain of missing KCPE marks

A day after Education Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i released the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) 2016 results, a number of parents, guardians and pupils on Friday morning flocked to the National Examinations Council offices seeking clarification on missing marks.

The visibly frustrated lot expressed fears of being left out in the secondary school selection process, which CS Matiang’i indicated would commence immediately and end by December 9.

“They are telling us to wait until 9^th (December) and selection will end on that 9^th. Now where will we go?” asked one of the affected candidates.

“After telling the child that this is the issue, she took the Bible and started to cry,” said one parent at Mitihani House.

KNEC attributed the mishap to a computer error and assured the affected persons that the issue will be resolved by Friday, December 9.

Two students from St Francis Kasar Primary School in Elyego Marakwet County have reported missing marks in Mathematics and English exams, while one pupil from Kiptabach Primary School in the same county is missing marks from the English paper.

The head teachers from the two schools are appealing the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to produce the marks for their pupils.

Elgeyo Marakwet County director of Education, Sabina Aroni, has, however, assured that KNEC wants to verify some details regarding the missing marks and will release them by December 9.

When releasing the results CS Matiang’i had asserted that: “ The examination did not leak, we did not leak anywhere at all…For the first time in the history of KCPE there is no candidate whose results will be cancelled.”

The public, which had heaped praise on the Education CS for eradicating exam-cheating menace that overwhelming affected last year’s exams, have now started punching holes on his assertions with some people even wondering whether the announced leading student will still remain at the top when all the marks will be released.

“Some of them (candidates) have three hundred and something marks when some subjects are missing. So when they tell us that the highest scorer had 436 marks, we tend to believe that that is wrong because if you take the marks that the candidate has and add the missing marks she might even have more marks than the highest candidate,” said a parent at Mitihani house.