Number Of KCPE Candidates With 1-99 Marks Increases By 3 Times

The number of candidates who scored between 1 and 99 marks out of a possible 500 in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams increased from the 2022 edition, raising concerns among various stakeholders.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu was among those to express concern while revealing that 2,060 candidates scored between the aforementioned marks range, which is nearly three times more than the 724 registered in 2022.

Additionally, those who scored between 400 to 500 marks dropped to 8,525 from 9,443 registered in 2022.

Candidates who scored between 300-399 marks increased to 352,782 from 307,756 registered in last year's KCPE.

Those who scored between 200-299 marks shot up to 658,278 from 619,583 in 2022. Just like last year's exams, the number of candidates who scored within that range was the most in the entire exam.

383,025 candidates scored between 100 and 199 marks in this year's KCPE, compared to 296,336 last year.

The top KCPE 2023 student, revealed as Michael Muturi Warutere of Riara Springs Academy in Nairobi, scored 428 marks compared to Fwaro Makokha Robinson, who emerged top with 431 marks alongside Otieno Lewis Omondi Glen in the 2022 edition.

Machogu further noted that English, English Composition, and Kenyan sign language all recorded significant improvement compared to KCPE 2022 - with female candidates outperforming their male counterparts in these subjects.

The remaining subjects, including Mathematics, Sciences, and Kiswahili, however, recorded a slight decline in performance.

1,406,557 candidates sat the exams, out of which 721,544 were male and 685,017 were female.

205 candidates who were not registered were still allowed to sit the exams to effect the 100 per cent transition policy.

The CS revealed that 9,354 candidates failed to sit for the KCPE 2023 exams but promised that the Ministry would conduct thorough mapping and administer a special examination in January 2024.

“To ensure that no candidate misses out on joining Form One from the final 2023 KCPE examination cohort, the Ministry of Education will conduct thorough mapping of any of those who may have failed to sit their examination this year in order to administer a Special Exam in January 2024,” he announced.

The final KCPE class marks the end of the 40-year-old 8-4-4 syllabus at the primary school level. The education system has since been replaced by the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), and the Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) modules.