CS Magoha rubbishes KNEC report suggesting mass failure by KCPE candidates

CS Magoha rubbishes KNEC report suggesting mass failure by KCPE candidates

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has dismissed a report by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) that suggested that candidates are not prepared to sit the forthcoming national examinations.

Prof. Magoha castigated the council terming their assessments as inaccurate outright insensitive saying they date 12 weeks back.

He dismissed widespread fears of unpreparedness saying candidates are ready to sit their exams.

“You would’ve contextualised this report in such a manner that it was done more than 12 weeks ago, since then the learners have been in school and they’re going to be there for another 6 weeks before they have exams. What the hell do you think you’re doing by killing their spirits?” Posed the CS.

The report recently released by the council raised concerns over the preparedness of a majority of Class Eight examination candidates whose learning was disrupted by a 9 month-forced break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Those children are intelligent, and all we should do is give them hope in life to do their exams and see how far they go,” Prof. Magoha however noted.

The KNEC report had suggested that 18 out of the 47 counties had mean scores above 50.0, with Nairobi recording the highest mean score at 59.20%, followed by Garissa and Mandera at 56.34 and 55.11% respectively.

The lowest mean scores were observed in Turkana (44.34%), Tana River (44.37%), and Samburu (44.51%)

Figures from the council also show that 263, 480 candidates performed dismally with under 200 marks out of a possible 500 in 2019; translating to 24% of the 1,083, 456 candidates who sat for the exams that year.

More than half of the total candidates scored below the average mark of 250, suggesting that a large number of pupils posted between average and below average performance in 2019.

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