Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu says there were very minimal cases of examination irregularities reported in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
Speaking when he released the results of the exam at Mitihani House in Nairobi on Thursday, November 23, the CS said only two candidates were caught cheating in this year’s KCPE exam.
According to the CS, the first candidate was caught with unauthorised notes in the examination room while the other was found with a mobile phone.
The CS did not, however, reveal the action taken against the culprits.
“Only two candidates were involved in examination malpractice. One was found with unauthorized notes while the other was found with a mobile phone,” CS Machogu said as he commended the 2023 KCPE candidates and all officials for ensuring that the credibility and integrity of this year’s examination remained high.
He noted that a total of 1,415,325 pupils were registered for the 2023 KCPE exam. However, 1,406,557 candidates sat for the exam.
According to the CS, 9,354 candidates failed to take their exams which were conducted between October 30 and November 1.
The pupils will be allowed to take a special exam in January 2024. The CS said the move is aimed at ensuring no pupil in the 2023 cohort misses Form One admission as curtains fall on the KCPE exam.
“To ensure that no candidate misses out on joining Form One from the final 2023 KCPE examination cohort, the Ministry of Education will conduct thorough mapping of any of those who may have failed to sit their examination this year in order to administer a Special Exam in January 2024,” the CS said.
The top candidate in this year’s KCPE exam scored 428 marks out of the possible 500, a slight drop compared to last year’s highest score of 431.
Some 8,525 candidates scored between 400-500 marks, while 352,782 candidates scored 300-399 marks.
A total of 658,278 candidates attained a score of 200 to 299 marks with 383,025 others scoring between 100 to 199 marks. Some 2060 pupils attained between 001 and 099 marks.
This was the last KCPE exam to be conducted in the country after 38 years of the implementation of the 8-4-4 education system. It paves the way for the full implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
