The Ministry of Education has announced that 1.4 million candidates who sat for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) will know their Form One school placement on Monday, December 18.
Education Director-General (DG), Dr Elyas Abdi said the 2024 Form One placement exercise will be announced at the Lenana School on December 18.
Abdi invited all regional and county directors of education together with stakeholders to a meeting.
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu will chair the meeting, coming almost a month since the release of the results.
“The agenda of the meeting will be the implementation of education programmes at the field offices and schools across the country.
The CS will also release the results of the 2024 Form One placement exercise in the same venue,” Elyas Abdi said.
Notably, the placement process, took place from November 27 to December 11. It will determine which high schools the students will join in January 2024.
Statistics to determine Form One Selection
Students with 400 marks and above will secure spots in national schools, totaling 8,523.
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According to data by the Ministry, 352,782 learners scored 300–399marks.
In addition, 46% of the pupils who sat for the examination scored between 200 and 299 marks. This was 658,278 learners.
On the lower end, candidates with 100 and 199 marks accounted for 27% of the learners at 383,025.
Further, those with 1 to 99 marks amounted to 2,060 candidates.
Notably, 9,354 candidates were unable to sit for the KCPE 2023 exams.
However, Education Cabinet Secretary Machogu assured them a second chance in January through a special test.
Machogu also highlighted that only two candidates were involved in exam malpractices.
Results Errors
The 2023 KCPE results were marred with errors, with the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) admitting that there were inconsistencies.
Some parents and teachers moved to court to stop the placement exercise.
However, Justice Lawrence Mugambi of Milimani High Court declined to issue conservatory orders, allowing the selection process to kick off on November 27.
On the other hand, the members of parliament had questioned the haste in which the KCPE exams were marked and released.
The lawmakers raised concerns over reports that some schools reported the same marks for candidates in particular subjects.
“It is unlikely that students can score the same marks, that is just mathematics. The odds are extremely which demonstrates that there were irregularities that happened in that particular exams,” Molo MP Kimani Kuria.
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On his part, Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga accused Education CS of failing to maintain the standards set by his predecessors in the Ministry.
He further called for investigations into the 2023 KCPE exam printing and marking process.
“Education CS Ezekiel Machogu has failed in his role to secure the integrity of our education system particularly the National Examination.
He has failed to uphold the systems set in place by Dr. Fred Matiang’i and Prof. George Magoha hence allowing the integrity to go downstream,” stated Odinga.
Machogu Defends Results
However, KNEC and the Ministry of Education maintained that the errors only affected SMS transmissions.
Appearing before Parliamentary Education Committee, CS Machogu denied having rushed to release the 2023 KCPE results.
According to him, the Ministry of Education did due diligence in the process of marking, verifying, and validating the results before releasing them.
