New KCSE Grading Fails to Lift Tail-End Performance as Skewed Curves Persist
We are in the so-called Silicon Age, an interesting epoch in all respects. Kenya, the soi-disant Silicon Savanna, could take pride in leading the race for innovation hubs in Africa, but finding a lasting answer to quality education and skills development remains an elusive target for the East African giant, a nation whose public offices are full of ambitious and well-crafted but dust-gathering policy documents. If the twists and turns the country has traced in seeking the ultimate formal education and grading system are anything to go by, then 2023 marked yet another important turning point along the long and winding path of unending experimentation and exploration. In a tale of systematic and gross errors, the results of the 2023 national primary school examinations broke the hearts of learners, teachers, and parents alike. A new grading system experimented for the 2023 national secondary school examinations apparently inflated the middle range of the performance curve but left a long wagging tail drowning in a pool of D and E grades, the lowest scores attainable.
Key Highlights
- An increase of about 20,000 in the number of students who sat KCSE in 2023 compared to 2022 defied the established trend from 2015, which has recorded an approximate annual increase ranging from 40,000 to…
