First year students reporting at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology(MMUST) in Kakamega. Nakuru, Nairobi, Kiambu, and Kakamega are among counties expected to send the highest number of KCSE candidates to public universities when the selection for the government-sponsored regular programme officially starts Monday. PHOTO/FILE
Monday, May 19, 2014
In Summary
- These counties have produced the highest number of candidates with an average grade of B- (minus) and above in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams whose results were released two months ago.
- According to a Nation analysis, Nakuru county produced the highest number of candidates who have qualified to join regular programmes in public universities with 4,889.
- Many of the counties which rated highly based on the mean score of their students had fewer candidates joining public universities under the regular programme.
- The only exception is Siaya, which was rated as the county with the second best mean score nationally.
These counties have
produced the highest number of candidates with an average grade of B-
(minus) and above in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)
exams whose results were released two months ago.
Although
candidates who scored C+ and above are qualified to join universities,
the cut-off for the regular programme in public universities has been
set higher with year because of the limited number of spaces.
The
Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service, which
replaced the Joint Admission board, has set a B- (minus) of 58 points as
the least entry grade for female candidates and a B plain of 60 points
for male candidates who will be joining Kenya’s 31 public universities
in 2014.
Those who scored C+ and above but fell below
this year’s cut-off can still join private universities or parallel
programmes offered by public universities.
According to a Nation
analysis, Nakuru county produced the highest number of candidates who
have qualified to join regular programmes in public universities with
4,889.
It was followed by Nairobi with 4,797. Its neighbour, Kiambu which has 4,162 was third.
Ironically,
during the ranking of counties when the KCSE results were released,
Nakuru was ranked 19 while Nairobi was ranked at number 29 out of 47.
Kiambu was number 37. Now they have turned tables on the counties that
had better mean scores.
Many of the counties which
rated highly based on the mean score of their students had fewer
candidates joining public universities under the regular programme.
Among them is Samburu county, which topped the examinations charts.
Although the county had the best mean score nationally, only 159 of its KCSE candidates scored B- (minus) and above.
The only exception is Siaya, which was rated as the county with the second best mean score nationally.
And now, figures show that 3,603 of its candidates had B- and above.
However, third best county in the exams, Elgeyo Marakwet, only has 1,331 candidates with B- (minus) and above.
What
these difference between counties like Samburu and Nairobi indicate is
that regions with fewer KCSE candidates are more likely to score highly
when ranked in terms of mean scores.
Most of the
counties ranked as top performers when the exams were released are in
arid and semi-arid regions, which are also sparsely populated.
Because
they had fewer than 10,000 candidates, they had better mean scores
compared to counties such as Nairobi, Kajiado and Nyeri which have much
larger numbers of candidates.
For instance, Samburu — which was ranked position one nationally — only registered 969 KCSE candidates while Kiambu had 24,268.
That explains why Kiambu will be sending more candidates to public universities.
Again,
Kiambu is home to several national schools including Loreto Limuru,
Mang’u, Limuru Girls, Alliance Girls and Boys and Mary Hill Girls.
At
the Coast, Mombasa has the highest number of candidates (923) followed
by Kilifi with 598 and Taita Taveta (444). Kwale has 362, Tana River 71
and Lamu 49.
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