NEP SCHOOLS HOLD THE TAIL AS USUAL AS KCSE ANNOUNCED

Even as the annual Kenya National Examination results (K.C.S.E) were announced, we regret to also announce that North Eastern Province schools, as usual, did their preffered job of holding the tail for the rest.

Nairobi province dominated the top positions with the region’s schools taking a hefty 41 positions of the top 100 followed by Central with 24. Rift Valley Province had 15, Nyanza 11, Western 5, Coast 2 and Eastern 2. But as has been North Eastern Province’s fate, no candidate from the region made it to the top 100 nationally.

Whereas the top candidate nationally had a performance index of 86, the top student in NEP had 79 marks.

North Eastern Province has for two years in a row failed to produce a student among the top 100 candidates nationally.

In the KCSE results released yesterday, the province had no candidate among the 100 best students.Consequently, leaders from the province have been calling for affirmative action and more efforts to improve educational facilities.

Out of the 305,015 candidates who sat the KCSE exams in 2008, only 72,649 candidates scored a mean grade of C+ and above, the minimum qualification mark for admission to public universities.

The number of those who scored A dropped from 1,157 in 2007 to 817 last year. Conversely, those at the tail end — grades D to E — ballooned to 102,759 compared to 69,166 the year before. Majority of our "now" school leavers are in this category.

There was improvement on Islamic subject like IRE and Arabic in Kenya schools, surveys indicate.

We reiterate that education is important and every family must send their children to school and be steadfast in that endevour. Political issues that are connected to schools must also be discussed with your several MP's.