Sixty-eight per cent of the 19,686 candidates who sat the KCSE exam last year scored D+ and below.
A report by the Kitui County Director of Education, seen by the Star on Thursday, shows no candidate got an A.
The number of students with D+ and below was 13,434.
Director Salesa Adano said the report is authentic. It indicates only 2,492 candidates, 12 per cent, scored C+ and above.
The document states that 4,000 candidates got either a C or a C -.
The report says the performance was dismal. In spite of that, the report said, there was a slight improvement by county schools. They got a cumulative mean score of 3.8 up from 3.6 in 2017. Sixteen schools got a mean score of 2.0 and below.
Only 10 per cent of the examination centres in Kitui (19 schools) posted above average mean scores.
The report states that county schools performed poorly in KCPE in 2018 compared to 2017.
“The county's KCPE mean score for 2018 was 231.62, a drop from 235.8 in 2017,” the report says.
The report indicates that all the top KCPE slots were occupied by private schools, while their public counterparts trailed.
Chuluni Merryland School in Nzambani subcounty was the best school in KCPE, with a mean score of 381.9.
The best subcounty in KCPE was Mutitu North, with a mean score of 252.45, the report said.
