Traditional academic powerhouses in Rift Valley region continued to shine in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam even as little-known schools put up a spirited fight to be counted.
Overall, schools in Nandi performed better than the other counties in the region, securing eight slots out of the 25 best schools sampled.
Kapsabet High, which took the top perch in the 2021 KCSE, posted an astounding 9.14 per cent of all the As scored nationally, with 104 candidates getting the top grade compared to 65 in last year’s exam.
The school also recorded 191 A-, with the entire class of 461 students managing to qualify for university admission.
The school posted an improved mean score of 10.688, up from the 10.5 it scored last year with 252 candidates.
Kapsabet Girls High, an extra county school with 332 candidates, had a mean score of 8.5, dropping slightly from the 8.7 it registered last year.
St Joseph Chepterit Girls, another national school with 249 candidates, posted a mean score of 8.14, compared to 7.01 it got last year with 250 students.
Ndalat Gaa Girls, an extra county school in Nandi, had an entry of 184 candidates out of which 179 scored C+ and above, with mean score of 8.01 compared to 5.9 in 2020 when the school had 174 candidates. Meteitei Secondary had a mean score of 8.14 with 249 candidates.
Moi Girls High School Eldoret
In Uasin Gishu County, Moi Girls High School Eldoret posted a mean score of 9.52 with 412 students. It had 13 candidates with As, 96 A- and 124 B+.
Paul Boit High had a mean score of 7.3 with 190 students, Chebisaas Boys High School managed a mean score of 7.25, while Uasin Gishu High School had 5.65.
Trans Nzoia County produced the fourth top candidate nationally, David Chege, from St Joseph’s Boys High School, which scored a mean grade of 8.5, with 711 candidates compared to last year’s 8.6 with 595 candidates.
“I owe my success to discipline teamwork and commitment. I also thank my teachers for their support and encouragement as well as my parents,” said Chege, who has set his sights on neurosurgery.
St Brigids Girls School Kiminini posted an improved mean score of 10 from last year’s 9.4 while St Anthony’s Boys School had a mean score of 8.3, with 317 candidates compared to last year 8.7 with 385 candidates.
St Joseph’s Girls dropped from a 9.8 mean score with 287 candidates in 2020 to 7.4 mean score with 317 in 2021. In Baringo, academic giants including Sacho High and Kabarnet Boys were trounced by little-known schools.
They include Ruth Kiptui Girls in Baringo North, which attained a mean score of 7.7 and Ossen Girls in the same sub-county that excelled to improve from a mean score of 5.6 in 2020 to 7.4.
Sacho High School in Baringo Central registered a mean score of 7.4, while Kabarnet Boys dropped from a mean score of 8.1 in the 2020 tests to 7.7 this year.
In Elgeyo Marakwet, Metkei Girls Secondary, St Patrick’s High School Iten and Moi Girls Kapsowar scored top marks in the test.
Metkei Girls and St Patrick’s High had two As, with the latter recording 20 A- compared to nine registered by the former.
Reporting by Fred Kibor, Florah Koech, Tom Matoke, Stanley Kimuge, and Gerald Bwisa
