Girl Child Continues To Shine In KCPE Two Years In A Row

KCPE results announcements were made on Monday 18^th November 2019, by the Cabinet Secretary of Education Prof. George Magoha, just 18 days after candidates finished their last paper.

1,083,456 candidates sat this year’s KCPE examination, 543,582, which is an equivalent of 50.17 percent, of the candidates were boys, while 539,874 (49.82 percent) were girls.

Girl child empowerment in Kenya has continued to be evident in the recent examination results as more improvement has been seen.

First, in the 2019 KCPE, girls outshined their male counterparts in overall results, recording excellent performance in English, Kiswahili, and Kenyan Sign Language. The boys, however, beat them in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies and Religion.

This is the second time in a row the girls are outperforming male candidates in the national examinations.

Also, while the top student who garnered 440 marks out of the possible 500 was male, two girls, Flavian Onyango of Chakol Girls’ and June Jeptoo of Sang’alo Central came second, scoring 439.

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While the number of boys sitting 2019 KCPE exams was 3,126 more than the girls, 18 counties produced more female candidates than male.

CS Magoha noted that the 18 counties, which were Nairobi, Kakamega, Bungoma, Meru, Busia, Vihiga, Siaya, Kiambu, Embu, Kitui, Kisumu, Tharaka Nithi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nyandarua, Kirinyaga, Bomet, Mombasa and Trans Nzoia, had more girls than boys sitting KCPE and should be praised for that.

It is also important to note that unlike before when we had huge numbers of teenaged girls sitting their exams in maternity hospitals or worse, dropping out of school after falling pregnant, this year the number of teenage pregnancies has significantly decreased.

During the release of results, Prof. Magoha said that only 10 girls were pregnant during the KCPE 2019 period, a drop from 50 during KCPE 2018, a clear indication that girls are being empowered and educated on the importance of education.

A lot of advocacy and lobbying work has been put in empowering girls, which could be the reason it is bearing fruit in their academic achievements. But has everyone forgotten the boy child?

While releasing KCPE 2019 results, CS Magoha remarked that the girls are competing favorably with their male counterparts, but it is time we started thinking of the boy child.