Knec warns public on fake list ranking secondary schools KCSE performance

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has disowned the list ranking top schools in the KCSE results that were released on Monday, May 10.

In a statement, the examination body stated that the list released for top schools and which had been circulated widely on social media was false.

KNEC further advised the public to ignore the list circulating adding that it did not commission the ranking.

⁩”We wish to advise the public to ignore lists circulating in social media purported to be the genuine ranking of KCSE  Examination results. The Council has not ranked schools in the results released. All lists are therefore fake,” KNEC noted.

In the now disputed list, Kenya High School was ranked the top school with a mean score of 10.467 followed by Kapsabet Boys with 10.11.

The Ministry of Education observed that ran­king in­di­vi­du­al stu­dents and scho­ols cre­a­ted fier­ce com­pe­ti­tion which so­me­ti­mes le­d to de­par­tu­re from te­aching to pre­pa­ra­tion for pas­sing exa­mi­na­tions and che­a­ting.

“In their ef­fort to ob­tain high gra­des, stu­dents and so­me­ti­mes te­achers re­sort to va­rio­us forms of che­a­ting de­sig­ned to gi­ve a can­di­da­te un­fair ad­van­tage over ot­hers.

“This ta­kes ma­ny forms inc­lu­ding co­py­ing from ot­her stu­dents du­ring exa­mi­na­tions, col­lu­sion bet­we­en stu­dents and su­per­vi­sors, use of ma­te­rial smug­gled in­to the exa­mi­na­tion ro­oms and pur­cha­sing of exa­mi­na­tion pa­pers,” an education report revealed.

On the students part, ranking made the we­ak ones to be re­gis­te­red in the low ran­ked scho­ols furt­her lo­we­ring their me­an sco­res and af­fec­ted pro­mo­tions to se­nior po­si­tions.

The­re we­re tho­se who felt that ran­king was un­fair be­cau­se com­pe­ti­tion was ske­wed by a number of fac­tors for exam­ple, scho­ols did not ha­ve le­vel pla­y­ing ground as they we­re di­ver­si­fied in terms of avai­la­bi­li­ty of re­sour­ces and the en­try be­ha­vio­ur of the stu­dents.

While announcing the KCSE 2020 results on Monday, May 10, Magoha stated that the class of 2020 had improved as compared to the class of 2019. 893 students scored A plain as compared to 627 candidates in 2019.

He also noted that all 747,171 students would be enrolled to higher education, tertiary institutions through KUPPS.