NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 2 – Boys dominated the top 10 positions in the 2009 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) results released on Tuesday with the first girl coming in at the 11th position nationally. David Gathuku Ndung\’u of Mangu High School emerged the best candidate in last year’s KCSE with 87.26 points.
He was followed by Trevor Mokaya of Maseno School and Hillary Kipkirui of Alliance High School who came in second and third respectively.
Fredrick Oduol of Starehe Boys Centre came fourth followed by Kenneth Koome of Alliance High School with Edwin Wekesa of Weiwei Secondary school in West Pokot coming in sixth.
Kogie Patrick and Cheruiyot Andrew both of Alliance High School occupied the seventh and eighth slots respectively.
Kimani James of Evelyn Memorial Christian High came in ninth followed by Simiyu Brian of Musingu High school who was in the 10th position.
The best girl Grace Njunge Wambui of Moi Girls Eldoret came in at position 11 followed by Mbabu Doris of Precious Blood Kilungu and Omweri Rita of Moi Girls Eldoret.
Click here for the list of the top 100 students nationally. https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/download.php
Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri raised concerns on girls’ poor performance after missing in the top 10 positions in the country.
He said the number of female candidates sitting the examination from hospitals had increased from 80 to 114 in 2009 with most of the cases being as a result of girls being sexually molested mostly by their teachers.
“It is disturbing to note the increase in the number of candidates who serve the examination in hospitals, given that they are our female candidates, this links with cases of sexual molestation in some schools,” he said.
The Minister announced that stiff action would be taken against errant teachers caught engaging in sex with school girls.
“We will not spare any efforts to deal with such errant teachers. This is one menace we must clear and stump out from our schools particularly when girls are endangered through errant activities,” he warned.
He also pointed out at the gender disparity of 45.3 percent girls to 54.7 percent boys which he partly blamed on early marriages especially in North Eastern Province which recorded the highest gap of 26.2 percent of girls and 73.6 percent of boys.
Central Province had the smallest gender difference with boys at 51 percent and girls 49 percent.
Prof Ongeri urged parents and guardians to promote girl education to help create equal opportunities for both boys and girls.
He also noted that the number of handicapped candidates who sat the examination last year had increased to 420 from 344 in 2008.
Eleven prisoners also sat the exams.
The Education Minister acknowledged that students’ performance improved slightly compared to 2008 with a total of 81,048 candidates scoring at least an aggregate of C+, which is the minimum grade required to qualify for university admission.
“In 2009 the candidates who have met the minimum university entry qualification of C+ and above improved with almost 10,000 candidates to 81,048 compared to 72,649 candidates,” he asserted.
There was also improved performance in English, Kiswahili, Geography, History and Government, Home Science, Agriculture, Power Mechanics, Electricity, Computer Studies, French and German while there was a drop in Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Christian Religious Education, Islamic Religious Education, Art and Design and Business Studies.
The Minister attributed the drop in Mathematics and Sciences to a shortage of science teachers, poor distribution of the few available science teachers in schools across the country and lack of proper exposure to practical subjects.
Exam irregularities which have been a major concern were also reported to have dropped with a total of 69 schools penalised for the vice.
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