Kenya National Examinations Council CEO David Njengere. An official at the council says the glitch lasted for an hour.
Students, parents and schools were on Monday thrown into confusion when they received conflicting results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams from the website of the examinations body.
When Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu declared at 10.36am Monday that the results for the 895,533 were now accessible through the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) website, anxious candidates and parents jammed the site, making it inaccessible for some time.
After approximately 40 minutes of technical adjustments by Knec, students and parents began successfully accessing the results.
However, as the day progressed and more candidates attempted to access their results, many were baffled to discover that the results displayed later on the website were starkly different from those initially accessed and celebrated earlier in the day.
Several schools, including prominent institutions like Kabianga High School, Mang’u High School and Nairobi School found themselves grappling with discrepancies in the results.
This turn of events plunged both students and parents into a state of confusion and uncertainty.
At Kabianga High School, the situation took a bewildering turn for one family. The Nation is not revealing the identities of the candidates for privacy reasons.
The parent, elated by the son’s initial A- grade, promptly shared the achievement with the Nation.
However, at about 5pm, the same parent was confronted with an unexpected twist: the son’s grade had changed to a B+.
“I really do not know what is happening. My son was very happy but when we checked again in the evening, the grade had changed to B+. This matter should be resolved because we now do not know what my boy has scored,” said the parent.
Another candidate at Mang’u High School shared the same predicament.
The student, who had celebrated an impressive A- grade early in the day, was left disheartened in the evening.
The candidate and his family were puzzled and distressed to find that the A- had been downgraded to a B+.
The incidents fuelled concerns and speculations about the reliability of the results from the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec).
“It’s very frustrating when your child gets two different results, how are we supposed to trust Knec if every time they are failing? If KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) had hitches then they should have known better to not have this same error all over again,” said another parent.
Several parents took to social media platforms to express their concerns and frustrations regarding the discrepancies in the results.
In another unsettling case from Nairobi School, a candidate experienced a disheartening turn of events.
Initially, the student was overjoyed upon receiving his KCSE results, which indicated an impressive A grade.
However, this elation soon turned to bewilderment and distress later when the grade was revised to an A-.
“I’m deeply surprised by the ministry’s stance that the second result is accurate. How can I have confidence in this new outcome when I’m certain of my strong performance?” the student asked.
A senior official at Knec, who sought anonymity because he is not authorised to issue media statements, acknowledged that the council had received such complaints from various schools.
He said that the glitch lasted “less than an hour” , and that engineers had arrested the situation.
He clarified that the initial results displayed on the portal were the correct results.
Following a significant technical hiccup last November, Knec opted to transition from the use of a USSD code for result dissemination.
his decision came in the wake of an embarrassing incident where discrepancies surfaced between the results shown on the Knec portal and those obtained via the USSD code.
During a graduation ceremony at the Eldoret National Polytechnic in Uasin Gishu County on December 6, 2023, Mr Machogu took the opportunity to address growing concerns surrounding the credibility of the KCPE results.
In his remarks, the minister sought to reassure the public about the integrity of the examination process.
“I want to assure Kenyans that the KCPE results were credible. Everything was fine and principals of various schools can confirm ... the issue arose from transmission. Our systems are okay, we have our PS even showing the Parliamentary committee how it works,” he said.
