2019 KCPE Results; Full Speech by Professor George Magoha, Education CS, during results release

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October 12, 2024

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Here is the Speech by the Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha during the release of the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results on Monday November 18, 2019;

“STATEMENT ON RELEASE OF THE 2019 KCPE EXAMINATION RESULTS BY PROF GEORGE MAGOHA, CABINET SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NOVEMBER 18TH, 2019 AT THE KENYA NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL OFFICES

I sincerely welcome you all to this important occasion when we are releasing the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results. I feel proud that we have managed to have the results ready just 17 days after the 1,083,456 candidates sat the examinations. I wish to sincerely thank everyone – the examination officials, examiners, monitors and the backroom staff at the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) – who has made this exercise possible. It is proof that with commitment, Government officials can deliver world-class services.

This marked the fourth year since we started administering the national examinations under a stricter regime anchored on the Multi-Agency Coordination Team. I wish to state that the Team’s commander is the Head of State, His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta himself. I am proud to lead the Education Ministry on his behalf. We are here at this function after he gave us the blessings to release the 2019 KCPE results earlier today.
On my own behalf and that of the Ministry, I commend the entire Multi-Agency Coordination Team comprising the Ministry of Education, Interior and ICT for executing an outstanding exercise of the 2019 KCPE administration again. I also thank our teachers led by our dear sister Dr. Nancy Macharia of the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Examinations Council under the chairmanship of Dr John Onsati and CEO Mercy Karogo. This team was instrumental in the setting, monitoring and examining processes. I cannot forget the KCPE class of 2019. All the candidates worked hard and they have all won.

I cannot forget to mention the spirited involvement of the Cabinet in the administration of the 2019 KCPE, a trend they have kept over the last four years. The Presidency, represented by a visit to one of the schools by Deputy President William Ruto, led the Multi Agency Coordination Team in the examinations monitoring. I thank my Cabinet colleagues, Chief Administrative Secretaries and Principal Secretaries for tinkering with their diaries to show the Government’s love for our children and provide proof that we are determined to deliver a credible examination. This carefully executed examination administration process will be sustained until we restore a culture where adults allow our well prepared candidates to sit their examinations without undue interference.

FRUITS OF CAREFUL KCPE MONITORING

Our greatest motivation to sustain our stricter examinations ecosystem is that we have alleviated the anxiety that used to torment parents and candidates each year. Unlike previous years, we did not collect a single fake examination centre in any part of the country in 2019. This is a stark difference from 2016, for example, when we collected 102 fake papers. Additionally, all KCPE monitors have informed us that during their work, they encountered faced of confident candidates who appeared relaxed as they sat their papers. This is evidence that our teachers are doing a wonderful job of preparing candidates. I must therefore warn the minority of adults who sometimes imagine they can circumvent our systems to aid cheating. Because we shall not allow them to do so.

A few adult individuals – not the candidates – attempted to use unorthodox means to aid cheating in this year’s KCPE. One of the most notable was the case in Nyandarua where a private centre tried to engage in daring and overt cheating. Overall, 10 people, including eight examination officials in three centres of Nyandarua, West Pokot and Garissa were arrested over involvement in various examination malpractices. Action was taken before any cheating could happen.

I must add that none of the examination papers, or even a single question, was leaked. All candidates were able to see the contents of the examinations at the start of each paper. The results we are releasing today will therefore reflect each candidate’s abilities.

HIGH NUMBER OF CASES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCIES

During the 2018 KCPE Examination, more than 50 cases of teenage pregnancies and births were reported. Arising from the reports, the Ministry – through its field officers and critical stakeholders – mounted a robust awareness campaign in all parts of the country in a bid to reverse the negative trend. I am happy to report that this campaign appeared to have helped the country to drastically reduce the number of cases reported this year, which stood at 10.

I wish to commend all stakeholders who, in one way or the other, have offered their support to help us from alleviating cases of teenage pregnancies in our schools, which only end up ruining the lives of our young daughters. I also wish to thank the TSC for meting out strict action against teachers found culpable of engaging in sexual relations with learners.

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GOVERNMENT’S 100% TRANSITION POLICY TO SECONDARY SCHOOL

His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked the Ministry of Education to ensure that every child who sits the KCPE Examination is admitted to secondary school under the 100 per cent transition policy. The aim of the Government is to ensure that all Kenyan children get basic education until Form Four.

I am proud to report that in 2019, the Ministry of Education achieved this policy by admitting all of the 2018 candidates to secondary schools.
I wish to assure the country that the Ministry has put in place measures to fulfil the 100 per cent transition policy in 2020. All the candidates whose results will be released today should expect to be admitted to Form One. The Ministry has already conducted a mapping exercise of vacancies in all categories of schools that will admit all the candidates.

EXPANSION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT THE 100 PER CENT TRANSITION POLICY

The Government is determined to address some of the expected challenges of the 100 per cent transition. As a result, the Government – together with development partners under the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project – will roll out a Sh8 billion programme to build classrooms and laboratories in 110 sub-counties located in 30 counties next year. These classes will ease the pressure on the existing facilities in our secondary schools.

LAUNCH OF THE ELIMU SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME FOR NEEDY LEARNERS

Currently, the Government is running the Free Day Tuition programme in secondary schools. So far, this programme has provided an opportunity for many children from needy families to attend school and further ensured that the 100 per cent transition policy becomes a reality.

To further enhance the programme, the Government will from next year put 9,000 Form One students from targeted regions under a full scholarship programme called ELIMU SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME. The programme will be run under the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project. Additionally, all the girls who will be selected as beneficiaries of the Elimu Scholarship Programme will also be supplied with free sanitary towels for the full period of their secondary school education. The Ministry will shortly be outlining details of the scholarship programme through the media and other public information channels. We have also been advised by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta to include slums in urban areas in the scholarship programme.

COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUM IN 2019

The Ministry wishes to thank all stakeholders for believing in and endorsing the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). In 2019, the Ministry made great strides in its efforts to methodically and meticulously launch the CBC in PP1 – PP3 and Grade 1-3. The Ministry has already launched the Curriculum Policy, Sessional Paper and National Education Sector Strategic Plan to anchor the CBC implementation in our country. The Ministry also mounted robust communication and stakeholder engagements by holding Quality Education Dialogues in all the 47 counties and sector-specific pre-conferences culminating. These events gave all Kenyans a chance to hold a national conversation that culminated in a National Curriculum Conference in August 2019.The Conference, opened by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, recommended that the CBC be rolled out in Grade Four in 2020.

I wish to assure the public that the Ministry has put in place all measures to ensure a successful rollout in Grade Four in January next year. To this end, the printing of 14 million text books for the Fourth Graders is set to be concluded on November 25th, 2019. The distribution of the textbooks will be concluded on December 17th, 2019 to ensure than all learners have the necessary materials as schools open in January. I wish to confidently state that the Ministry now has achieved a 1:1 learner-text book ratio in all our primary and secondary schools countrywide.

FORM ONE SELECTION DATES

After the release of the 2019 KCPE results today, the Ministry will immediately embark on the secondary school placement exercise of all the candidates. Already, the Ministry has developed water-tight criteria to ensure the process is fair, objective, transparent and in keeping with all forms of meritocracy. I will launch the Form One selection exercise on Monday, December 2nd, 2019.

THE 2019 KCPE EXAMINATION RESULTS

After outlining these critical issues, I now turn to announce the 2019 KCPE Examination results.

Field Administration of the 2019 KCPE Examination

Candidates at the 2019 KCPE examination between the October 29th to and October 31st 2019. A total of 191,016 contracted professionals, including 27,809 centre managers, 28,014 supervisors, 66807 invigilators, 58,060 security officers, 2,860 examination management directors, 479 clerks and 6,987 drivers were deployed into the examination administration process. They were spread across the country to ensure all KNEC regulations were complied with.

Candidature for the 2019 KCPE Examination

A total of 1,083,456 candidates sat the 2019 KCPE Examination. Of these, 543,582 (50.17%) were boys and 539,874 (49.82%) girls. In 2018, 1,052, 344 candidates sat the examination.

During the 2019 KCPE examination, 18 Counties registered more female candidates compared with male candidates. These counties that must be pointed out for praise are: Kakamega, Kakamega, Nairobi, Meru, Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia, Kiambu, Siaya, Kitui, Embu, Kisumu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Tharaka Nithi, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua, Trans Nzoia, Mombasa and Bomet.

The three counties with the highest candidature in the examination were: Nairobi (62,498), Kakamega (54,311) and Nakuru (53,225)
Counties with the lowest candidature were: Lamu (2,959), Isiolo (3,454) and Samburu (4,793).

The number of candidates who were absent increased by 2,322 (58.78%), from 3,950 in 2018 to 6,272 in the 2019 KCPE examination. The highest number of absent candidates was recorded in Meru (407) and Turkana (385).

Underage and Over-age Candidates

The number of under-age candidates increased from 15,747 (1.48%) in 2018 to 20,086 (1.84%) in 2019. The counties that had the highest number of candidates with under-age candidates were: Bungoma (1,770), Bomet (1,111), and Kericho (1,144).
Three top Counties with the highest cases of over-age candidates (above 19 years) were: Turkana (4,013), Garissa (1,957) and Kilifi (3,716).

Performance of Candidates

In the 2019 KCPE examination, candidates improved in four of the six examination papers offered compared with 2018. These were: English, Kiswahili, Kenya Sign Language, Social Studies and Religious Education. There was, however, a slight drop in mathematics and science. Overall, I am impressed that the performance of the candidates was better than last year, an indicator that our teachers are doing a wonderful job in attending to our learners.

Like last year, female candidates performed slightly better than their male counterparts in English, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language. On the other hand, male candidates performed slightly better than their female counterparts in mathematics, science and social studies and Religious Education.

This year, the top candidate scored 440 marks. The number of candidates scoring 400 marks and above dropped to 9,770 (0.90%) from 11,559 (1.10%) last year. But there was a rise in the number of candidates scoring between 301 and 400 marks, growing to 243,320 (22.46%) from 223,862 (21.27%) last year.

The top candidate in the country was Andy Michael Munyiri of Damacrest Schools, Thogoto with 440 marks. Three candidates tied in the second position, two of them girls from public schools. These were: Flavian Onyango of Chakol Girls (439 marks), June Cheptoo Koech of Sangalo Central (439 marks) and Sean Michael Ndung’u of Kitengela International School who scored 439 marks as well. That public school candidates matched their private school candidates is proof that our Free Primary Education Programme has come of age and that our teachers are excelling inspite of the higher enrolment. It is also evident that girls are competing favourably with boys for the top academic honours.

In general, the distribution of the grades was as follows:

Candidates with Special Needs

This year, a total of 2,407 candidates with special needs sat the KCPE Examination. The first candidate in this category scored 414 marks out of the highest possible 500 marks. Some 211 candidates scored between 300 and 400 marks in this category.

I wish to emphasise that, as has been the Government’s tradition, the Ministry will continue to implement interventions that will help our special needs children to access and do well in their education. The Government plans to launch the National Psycho-Education Assessment and Research Centre at the Kenya Institute of Special Education, Nairobi to further ensure that we have necessary facilities for the learning of our children with special needs.

Examination Irregularities

It is evident from the administration of the KCPE examination that the traditional forms of cheating have been wiped out. Our vigilant measures of examination administration have continued to assist us to nip in the bud some of the cases that would have led to cheating. This year, only four candidates were disqualified over impersonation. I wish to commend all officials involved in the examinations for stamping out cheating.

Accessing the 2019 KCPE Examination Results

The KCPE Examination results will be collected by respective schools from the Sub County Education offices. Candidates should therefore collect their results from their respective examination centres. Individual candidates’ results can also be accessed by sending a Short Text Message (SMS) containing the candidate’s Index Number followed by KCPE to 20076. This service will be available immediately after this event.

Mark Range 2019

401 – 500: 9,770
301 – 400: 243
201 – 300: 566
101 – 200: 262
001 – 100: 1,173

I am now happy to declare the 2019 KCPE examination results officially released. As I said earlier, all candidates have passed and will progress to the next level. May I wish all of them the very best in their academic pursuits.”

PROF. GEORGE MAGOHA, CBS
CABINET SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION
Monday, 18th November, 2019