KCSE 2024 Results: Worrying performance as highest number of E’s is recorded.

A Knec official inspects administration of the exams in one of the KCSE centres.

Over the past years, a student’s academic and career life is often judged by their school grades and those who score grade E are likely to attract disdain from society.

Many students fear the ignominy it brings and sometimes avoid mentioning their educational backgrounds in public.

The thought of explaining to their parents how they attained such a grade after spending four years in school is overwhelming; with the majority treated as pariahs.

The number of students attaining the dreaded E grade has been on the rise; a worrying trend that is projected to rise.

In the past five years alone, the figure rose by a 72 per cent margin, depicting the steady rise in the number of E graders.

In 2019, 29,318 candidates were at the lower end of the ranking scale despite the number of students who qualified for university having risen that year to 125,746.

The figure dropped to 28,046 in 2020 but rose to 46,151 the following year.

In 2022, the number of E graders dropped marginally to 30,822, comprising 18,062 men and 12,760 women. This, however, increased in the 2023 exams to 48,174.

The 2024 KCSE exams saw the figure rise to 48,333; comprising 20,112 women and 28,221 men.

Education stakeholders have in the past attributed this to poverty in some parts of the country, with a section of learners missing school due to lack of fees.

Despite being criticised for sending learners home, a section of school heads have defended their actions by blaming the government for delaying the disbursement of funds, hence leading to scarce resources needed for running operations.

Last year, former Education CS Ezekiel Machogu directed a team to investigate the number of grade Es in the 2023 KCSE exams to establish the high rate of dismal performance.

One of the major tipping points discussed was the new grading system that reduced compulsory subjects required to compute a candidate’s mean grade.

Previously, the grading system considered five mandatory subjects across three cluster groups; Maths, English, Kiswahili, science and a humanity subject.

In the new system, only two mandatory subjects, Mathematics and one language (English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language) will be used to compute the mean grade.

For the new system, examiners must pick a candidate’s top five performing subjects, doing away with the previous system which was perceived to disadvantage learners whose best subjects could not be considered if not within the clusters.

Critics have, however, accused the new grading system of placing an overemphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects and leaving a large number of students in a pool of D and E grades.