Why govt not yet ranking schools

Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i on Thursday, December 1, said that the ministry, at least for now, won’t rank schools or candidates in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).

Matiang’i said that education ministry did not manage to work in time on a proposal of ranking students or schools’ performances in this year’s national exam, thus the proposal was not presented before Parliament for approval.

Parliament passed law in August, 2016 reverting to school and candidate ranking in national exams.

He, however, noted that once the ministry presents the model of ranking to parliament and it gets necessary approval, the ministry would avail a ranking list of schools and students in  KCPE 2016.

Dr Matiang’i revealed that the top student in this year’s KCPE got 436 marks out of the possible 500.

The top student in KCPE 2016 would not have made it in the list of top 90 KCPE performers in 2015, where the top performer got 449 marks.

Matiangi said only 5, 190 students out of the 942, 021 candidates who sat KCPE 2016 got 400 marks and above. This is a 31 percent decline if compared to last year’s KCPE, where 7, 560 students out of 938, 912 candidates got 400 marks and above.

9, 950 special needs students sat this year’s KCPE and in this category, the top student got 421 marks out of the possible 500.

To get KCPE results, students or guardians are supposed to send mobile text with their index number to 22252.

Dr Matiang’i said Form One selection begins immediately and that letters of admission would be given to students before December 25.

He said selection process to join Form One will be finalized by December 9.

The CS added that the first batch of students to join Form One will be admitted to respective secondary schools on January 9, 2017.

Dr Matiang’i said in the history of national exams annunciation, this is the first time that no KCPE candidate will have his or her results cancelled.

He, however, noted that there were 21 cases of exam malpractice or attempted exam malpractice that the ministry is currently dealing with.