The Ministry of Education has kept its promise of releasing the results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations before Christmas. It has now emerged that the results will be out any time now after the marking exercise was completed yesterday.
The exercise ended at 19 centres in Nairobi and its environs, setting the stage for analysis of the results which could be released before the end of the week by Education Cabinet Secretary Amb. Amina Mohamed.
Yesterday, several examiners left the centres with top leaders of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) monitoring the analysis. The marking of the KCSE exam scripts started immediately after the examinations at centres including Mang’u, St Georges Girls’, Buruburu Girls’, State House Girls’ and Thika.
Marking took place under tight security and strict supervision by KNEC officials led by Chairman George Magoha.
Examiners who participated in the exercise said it was not as tough as last year’s since they had enough time to mark.
“The marking started at 6 am and went on until 9 pm. An examiner was required to mark at least 100 scripts,” revealed one of the sources.
Ministry of Education officials have remained guarded on when exactly the results will be released but have maintained that the results will be out before Christmas,
“The leadership of the country (President Uhuru Kenyatta) will announce the date,” Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said at Nairobi School, when she witnessed the sealing of the last paper.
A total of 664,585 candidates wrote the tests which began on November 5 and ended on November 28. The candidates were examined in 31 subjects which made up a total of 76 papers.
The students are now eyeing close to 100,000 slots in 70 public and private universities in the country while those who won’t make the cut point will be forced to join technical colleges.
For most of us we got to enjoy our Christmas holidays as results were released in February of the following year. However, candidates today have to live with the anxiety just a few days away from Christmas as they wait to know their fate.
Do you think it is a good idea to release exam results before the holidays?