Twelve counties registered more female than male candidates in the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.
This is compared to 20 counties that registered more female than male candidates in 2020 with Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha.
The counties that registered more female candidates this year were Mombasa, Meru, Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, Nairobi, Uasin Gishu, Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega, Vihiga, Kisumu and Siaya.
“The fact that the number of counties with female candidates reduced this year is a good sign that the male child is not being left behind,” said the CS.
The other counties that registered more females in 2020 were Kwale, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kisii, Kilifi, Lamu, Bomet, Makueni and Migori.
In 2019, a total of 18 counties registered more female than male candidates in 2019.
“We are looking forward to have more boys register in the named counties,” he said
Overall, at 610,384 (50.28 percent), more boys sat for the national examination compared to 603,647 (49.72 percent) girls.
A total of 1,214,031 candidates sat the examination in 28,313 centres compared to the, 1,179,192 candidates who sat the 2020 KCPE examination.
“Male and female candidates increased by 19,934 (3.27 percent) and 14,905 (2.47 percent) respectively,” he added.
In terms of performance, Prof Magoha announced that the performance of male and female candidates was comparable.
“However, female candidates performed slightly better than their male counterparts in English and Kiswahili,” said the CS.
Male candidates performed slightly better than their female counterparts in Kenyan Sign Language, mathematics, science and social studies and religious education.
From the top candidates nationally, boys took eight slots compared to girls who took six.
This year, a male candidate Magata Bruce Makenzie from GilGil Hill Academy is the top candidate with 428 marks. In the 2020 KCSE, the top pupil was a girl, Faith Mumo from Kari Mwailu primary school, in Makueni County, who scored 433 marks.
For the special needs schools, girls have taken the first two top slots with Bethany Tahillah Migosi scoring 417 and Grace Neema Katana getting 407 marks.
