National schools to grab lion’s share of university slots

The 2024/25 university cycle could see students from national schools dominate courses during placement courses.

When Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu released the results on Monday, he said National schools produced the highest number of candidates with an overall mean grade of A at 889 followed by Extra County with 172 then private schools with 143 then County and Sub-County schools with five and seven respectively.

“I am impressed by the quality of grades that are coming out of our sub-county schools that produced 283 candidates with mean grades of A and A- in the 2023 KCSE. I urge all stakeholders to invest more in the Sub County schools, where more of our learners attend school,” the CS said.

According to distribution of scores top national schools took the lion’s share of the Grade A plain with schools like Moi High School Kabarak having 62 of them, Alliance High School had 54, Kapsabet Boys and Maranda High had 53 each, Alliance Girls High School had 43, Maseno School had 36, Mangu had 35 and Kanga School had 29.

Several A Grade

Other schools with several A plain included Baricho with 25, Kisii School with 24, Meru School and Loreto High School Limuru has 22 each, Starehe Boys Centre and Schools had 17, Butula High at 16, Kagumo High had 15 others while Butere Girls had 13 among other top national schools
On the overall, more male than female candidates attained a mean grade of A plain at 825 and 391 respectively.

Some 7,254 other candidates scored A- (minus), 18,078 had a B+ (plus), 36,728 scored B plain, while 59,514 and 78,343 others scored B- (minus) and C+ (plus) respectively.

The CS said that 1,216 (0.14 per cent) candidates obtained an overall Grade A in the KCSE compared to 1,146 (0.13 per cent) in 2022.

The number of candidates who attained the minimum university entry qualification of Grade C+ (plus) and above was 201,133 (22.27 per cent) in the 2023 KCSE exam compared to 173,345 (19.62 per cent) in 2022.

“This is as a result of application of new grading system that reduced the number of compulsory subjects required to compute the mean grade,” said the CS.

According to Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) statistics, 30,402 students from national schools score the minimum university entry points, 84,625 from Extra county, 26,714 from county schools, 43,764 from Sub County schools and another 15,598 from private schools.

To join university

While 889 students with A plain from national schools join universities, only seven with a similar grade from Sub County schools will do.

Similarly, 4,092 students from National schools scored Grade A- (minus) compared to 2,086 from Extra County, 156 from County, 276 from Sub County and 644 from private schools.

Some 6,377 students from National schools scored B+ (Plus) compared to 7,352 from Extra county, 1,200 from County, 1,643 from Sub County and 1,506 from private schools. For Grade B (plain) 7,466 national school students will secure placement in universities, 16,593 from Extra County another 3976 from County, 5,833 from Sub County and Private schools had 4,718.

A majority of students who scored C+ (plus) will be drawn from Extra County schools totaling 32,197 followed by those from Sub County at 22,455 then County schools with 13,019, private with 5,727 and the least number will be from National at 4,945.

A majority of Grade E scores were recorded in Sub County schools totaling 39,944 out of the total 48,174, private schools had 5,961, County schools had 2,093, Extra County had 174 while National schools had two.

Last year, the Government introduced a new funding model that delinked student placement from funding. Continuing government-sponsored students will however continue to be supported under the existing model of Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC).

Last year, Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) said the practice of Form Four candidates applying for courses they are likely to pursue in tertiary institutions before they sit their KCSE exam was scrapped.

This is due to the fact that the new funding model is mainly pegged on actual cost of the degree.
Funding will consist of scholarship and loan components as well as household contributions, with the cost of programmes expected to vary for new students every year.

According to Kuccps, Government financial allocation to universities will focus on individual students and this year class’ cost could be different and its portal will change in terms of what they put as the cost.

This came as Linda Jamii Civil Society, led by Prof Fred Ogola said regretted that the just released KCSE results have yet again opened a debate of loopholes bedeviling the education system and the never ending quest for reforms that hardly materialize.

“Looking at the results per data, it is high time we shift from semantic arguments and deal with data, action point and lasting reforms. When a country produces about 700,000 learners who have not attained a minimum university entry grade, this calls for an immediate action plan,” said Ogola.

To this end, Ogola said the government should address the teacher student deficit as a matter of urgency, invest in facilities and enforce school inspectory report largely focusing on quality.

“The government should revisit the 2012 proposal of creating a quality assurance and standard council which must spread its tentacles to the sub county schools fondly known us CDF schools which have recorded the highest number of the 48,000 Grade E,” he said.