NAIROBI: The performance of candidates in the 2014 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination has generally improved compared to 2013, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has said.
Prof Kaimenyi said male candidates outshone their female counterparts for the second year running.
He said: “About 88,299 which translate to 59 per cent of the male candidates attained an overall mean grade of C+, with 61,418 which translate to 41 per cent of the female candidates attaining C plus and above.”
The Education CS pointed out that 2,133 male candidates attained a mean grade of A compared to 940 female candidates.
Despite this, Kaimenyi who released the results Tuesday pointed out that female candidates beat their male counterparts in Kiswahili, English and Christian Religious Education (CRE) subjects.
He added that overall candidature had grown with approximately 36,934 from 2013 which marked an 8.3 per cent increase, with female candidature having increased steadily in the last three years standing at 10.3 per cent against that of the male candidates at 6.6 per cent.
“Male candidates were 259,746 standing for 54 per cent with female candidates being 223,884 representing 46 per cent. This is fairly comparable to 2013 where male candidates accounted for 55 per cent of the total candidature with the females representing 45 per cent,” he said.
The Education CS pointed out that candidates in all the 47 counties had generally increased, apart from in Lamu and Nyamira counties where no increase was noted.
Kiambu, Nakuru, Kakamega and Nairobi counties were highlighted as having the highest number of candidates, with Murang’a, Kiambu, Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties being highlighted as having the highest number of female candidates.
High numbers
“We must find out why these counties have recorded such high numbers in female candidates so that other counties can emulate them. But we also need to investigate the factors that are affecting male students,” Kaimenyi said.
Garissa County, it was pointed out, had 72 per cent male candidates and only 28 per cent female candidates with Mandera County recording 71 per cent male candidates and only 29 per cent female candidates.
“These two counties recorded the highest gender disparity from all the 47 counties,” Kaimenyi said.
The number of underage candidates (below the age of 16), the Education CS said, had increased from 1.3 per cent in 2013 to 1.9 per cent in 2014.
He pointed out that although parents were eager take their children to school, it was not advisable to take them too early.
“Enrolling learners who are of the expected age facilitates the stage by stage development of critical cognitive and psychomotor abilities of learners as they go through the educational cycle,” he said.
-standardmedia.co.ke
