- The CS assured that the results will be credible, adding that the marking centres were increased from 35 to 40 to better the working conditions.
- He said the candidates will benefit from a new grading system, unveiled in August, which is aimed at increasing the number of those joining universities.
Image: PCS
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has announced that the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results will be released on the second week of January.
The exams begun on October 23, and ended on November 24 with 903,260 candidates sitting for the papers.
In an interview with the Nation, Machogu said at the moment, they are verifying the marks.
"We are done with the marking. What we are currently doing is compiling the marks, verification and validation. So that by the end of the day we release credible results," he said.
The CS assured that the results will be credible, adding that the marking centres were increased from 35 to 40 to better the working conditions.
He said the candidates will benefit from a new grading system, unveiled in August, which is aimed at increasing the number of those joining universities.
The system, which is part of the recommendations made by the Presidential Working Party of Education Reforms, focuses on the subjects that candidates are strong in reducing the number of compulsory subjects.
This means that the 2023 KCSE candidates will be graded in two compulsory subjects including Math and any language (Kiswahili, English) or Kenya Sign Language.
Machogu regretted that the current system is unfair to some students whose best subjects are not within the cluster and cannot be taken into account.
"Previously, compulsory subjects included Math, Kiswahili and English languages and two sciences. But this time round we will only have two compulsory subjects that is Math and English, Kiswahili or KSL," he said.
"We are doing this to allow learners to explore subjects they are good at."
The change will see a higher number of students qualify for university entry points.
"Even the entry grade for university education, the numbers will increase because last year we had 173,000 students out of 887,000 getting C+ and above which is 19 per cent," Machogu said.
"Regionally, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania the percentage of people going to university is about 30 per cent."
CS Machogu's assurance of credible results comes days after the Kenya National Union of Teachers urged him to give examiners more time to compile and give the candidate the marks they deserve.
Knut national vice chairperson Aggrey Namisi claimed KCPE results were rushed hence having errors, pleading that the same will not be repeated with KCSE.
"Please CS Machogu, we are not in a hurry, give the markers time to analyse results well before you release, we don’t want to experience what happened during the KCPE examination release," he said while addressing the press in Bungoma on December 23.
"Let the examiners go through the questions, mark, prepare, and give credible results."