Students of Strathmore school celebrate their performance/CFM
Second place was taken by Alliance High School which got a mean of 78.49 as Mary Mother of Grace Secondary School from Laikipia was placed third with a mean of 76.72 followed by Strathmore School in fourth position.
The Kenya High School, Alliance Girls’ High School and Maranda High School completed the fifth, sixth and seventh positions nationally.
Among national schools, Alliance High School, Kenya High, Alliance Girls, Maranda High School and Loreto Girls occupied the first five positions.
In terms of performance by counties, Samburu County was top followed by West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Siaya and Embu in the top five positions.
According to Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo, 12 subjects including Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and English recorded improved performances compared to the 2011 examinations.
Kilonzo ordered the directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards to look into the dwindling performance levels in Kiswahili, History and Government, Biology and Agriculture.
He attributed the drop in Kiswahili performance to increased Internet use.
“It’s very embarrassing but I sincerely don’t understand it; I have challenged people concerned with standards to look into it. To see a drop in Kiswahili suggests a cultural and human issue that we may not be aware of although personally I think Internet is harming us because all of it is in English,” said the minister after releasing results.
He says that Kiswahili being a national language should be emphasised among the youth to curb its drop.
“I do not want Kiswahili to be the language of wazees (the old) I want it to be used by everybody. The country should however remember that language is as good as a tool. If youths feel that Kiswahili is not a useful tool in their work performance it will diminish,” added the minister.
He expressed delight at the 2012 results, in which the number of girls increased by 6.9 percent while that of boys increased by 5.22 percent.
The gender parity ratio stood at 55.26 percent male to 44.74 percent female compared to 55.7 percent male to 44.3percent female in 2011.
There were more male candidates than female candidates in all the counties with the exception of Meru and Tharaka Nithi.
A total of 436,349 candidates sat the 2012 KCSE examination in 6,968 centres across the country.
The results were also welcomed by the chairman of the Kenya National Union of Teachers Wilson Sossion who challenged the government to reduce university cut off points to improve the transition rate to university.
He said that there was reason to reduce the university cut off points with the increase in the number of public universities.
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