NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 8 – The Ministry of Education has launched an investigation on massive failures in the 2023 KCSE examinations.
In results released on Monday by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, 48,174 candidates scored the lowest mean grade of E despite the flexible system of computing the final overall results.
“I am pained by the fact that a large number of candidates (48,174 or 5.33%) still ended up scoring 38 a mean grade of E in the 2023 KCSE Examination even after the Ministry used a more flexible system of computing the final overall candidate results,” Machogu said and gave the team a month to file a comprehensive report.
The investigations are set to enable the Ministry of Education make informed decisions as they seek to change the education curriculum to be transformative-based.
“As a Country, we must start interrogating data and evidence to enable us to make critical decisions that would ensure that we realise our return on investment from all the resources that the Government puts into the education sector,” Machogu noted.
A total of 1,216 students achieved an A grade in the 2023 KCSE examinations, with 825 being male and 391 female, representing 0.14% of the total candidates. Additionally, 201,133 students obtained the minimum university entry grade of C plus and above, constituting 22.27% of the total candidates.
In the A- category, 2,782 females and 4,472 males achieved this grade. A total of 18,078 students received a B+ grade, comprising 10,370 males and 7,708 females. In the B plain category, there were 36,728 candidates, while 59,514 scored a B- grade, and 78,343 attained a C+ grade.
Comparing the pass rates between the 2023 and 2022 KCSE examinations, a total of 526,222 candidates achieved a grade of D+ and above, representing 58.27% of the candidates in 2023, as opposed to 522,588 (59.14%) in 2022.
National schools produced the highest number of candidates with an overall mean grade of A (889: 2.486%), followed by Extra County (172: 0.096%), Private Schools (143; 0.221%), County Schools (5; 0.004%), and Sub 35 County Schools (7; 0.001%).
