KCPE Results Released Early in Midweek Surprise by Education CS

Over 950 thousand students who sat for the 2016 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams received their results on Thursday. The early release of exams came as a surprise to many, especially to the candidates who sat for the exams.

It has always been the norm that KCPE results are released on the 27th of December .but the current Cabinet Secretary of Education Dr. Fred Matiang’i has broken that norm this year.

The cabinet Secretary  re-introduced the ranking of schools and candidates, which had been banned by former CS of education Jacob Kaimenyi.

However, the National Assembly passed law in August, 2016 reverting to school and candidate ranking in national exams. 

A number of security measures were also put in place. For instance, examination questions being randomly selected and sent abroad for printing for the purposes of cutting off local circulation. Security was enhanced through shrink-wrapping, which ensured there was no unauthorized access to the papers.

There was also deployment of strong metallic containers to store the exam papers and the appointment of school heads as center managers also helped avert cases of cheating. However, what made all the difference was the number of security personnel deployed.

This year saw the largest deployment of security and intelligence officers, in a well-planned programme to safeguard credibility of the examinations, which was reflected in a joint statement by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery, Information’s Joe Mucheru and Matiang’i. A number of Government agencies and ministries were also involved in the administration of the examinations.

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.

The candidates who sat the 2016 KCPE exams will join secondary school in the first month of 2017, a change from the usual February entry.

Related: Gender Parity in Girl Child Education in Kenya Narrows.