A majority of candidates that sat for the 2016 KCSE exams scored grades D- and E, falling below the threshold for public university placements.
Results released by Education CS Fred Matiang'i on Thursday show that 149,929 candidates scored D-, while 33,399 students scored E.
Matiang'i said 141 candidates scored As, 4,645 candidates scored A- and 10,975 scored B+.
"This is a true reflection of candidates’ result, without manipulation and massaging of the results," the CS said.
Matiang'i said all the 88,929 who scored between A and C+ will be absorbed into the universities
Why such a poor performance from our students?Does it mean no standardization of the results was done?If for instance all students scored below 50% in a certain subject wouldn't some still score A plain? This means grades are not pre-fixed. They are determined at the end of the marking.
If that is the case, then
which criteria was used to come up with only 88,929 students who scored C+ and above all of which, are expected to get public universities admissions as regular students.This means private and public universities parallel programs will not get qualified individuals left to join them,considering the cut mark for one to get direct admission for any degree programme is C+.
The set grading criteria ought to cast a long look at the prevailing economics, and the future.
For instance, our public universities get low government funding and have to rely on parallel courses. What does this portend for the future? Does it mean private universities will close shop?
If so, then we must be ready for an economic shake-up. For instance, towns, huge estate programmes, real estate, and thousands of jobs have been created by universities. In Meru, for instance, KEMU has created an economy around itself. The same applies to Thika and many other towns bordering universities
Could this end up as a case of cutting down the forest and vanquishing the monkeys? Is there a way to legitimize education, while safeguarding the gains made?
These are points to ponder, not to blame anybody.
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