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Rawlings Otieno

English Composition, Kiswahili Lugha, Sign Language, Mathematics and Religious Education papers recorded an improvement in performance in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination compared to 2019.

But English Language, Kiswahili Insha, Sign Language Composition, Science and Social Studies, recorded a drop in performance in the 2020 exams.

While releasing the 2020 KCPE exam results yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said though there were fears that the 2020 candidates would perform poorly because of the pandemic that saw them stay at home for seven months, the results were impressive.

“The good news is that performance of candidates in the 2020 KCPE is commendable and has shown no remarkable difference from the performance of the past years,” said Magoha.

In the exams, female candidates performed better than males in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language while male candidates posted better results in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Religious Education.

“I wish to commend all the teachers, parents and candidates for the good performance achieved during a very difficult period. This wonderful class have defied all the challenges they went through last year to post impressive results,” said Magoha.

He said the assessment tests, which the candidates wrote last October after schools reopened,  provided useful indicators to teachers on the knowledge levels of KCPE exam candidates.

“The government with development partners availed to us a Sh1.1 billion Covid-19 recovery fund part which enabled Knec to conduct an entry assessment,” said Magoha.

He added: “I commend the teachers for utilising the assessment results to prepare the candidates ahead of the examinations, a move that has led to the impressive results that we are celebrating today.”

Candidates who scored more than 400 marks decreased from 9,673 in 2019 to 8,091 in the 2020 exams.

Those who scored 300-399 were 282,090 representing 23.67 per cent of the more than 1.17 million candidates who sat the exam. Some 589,027 candidates scored 200-299 marks representing 49.43 per cent compared to 566,069 candidates in the 2019 exams.

Magoha said that whereas 1,393 candidates scored between 01 and 99 marks in the 2019 KCPE, the number reduced to just 307 in the 2020 KCPE.

According to Magoha, this was an indicator that most candidates had scored better grades than the previous year.

“In the 2020 KCPE examination, overall performance improved compared to 2019. Although the mark of the highest candidate dropped from 440 to 433 in 2020, the mean average performance and quality of grades for all candidates is higher,” he said.