Puzzle of 161 students in national schools who scored mean grade E

161 students who were schooling in Kenya’s national schools scored a the lowest mean grade E. The results produced by the students has left many puzzled as to how they could have managed to score the lowest grade in national schools that are known to only admit academically gifted students.

Over the years, national schools in Kenya have been admitting students with KCPE scores of 400 and above, and in rare cases lows of just between 380 and 400 marks. However, in the 2024 KCSE examinations, national schools in the country managed to produce tens of mean grade E.

This was an escalation from previous years where this grade has been recorded in national schools. According to a report that appeared in the Sunday Standard, 338 students had taken home grade Es in the 2019 KCSE examinations.

In the 2020 exams, 141 candidates scored an E. The lowest scores of this grade were recorded in the 2023 examinations in which only two mean grade E scores were recorded.

This report has further revealed that the number of students admitted at national schools who are failing to qualify for direct entry into universities has remained puzzlingly high.

For instance, in the 2024 examinations, 6,910 students in national schools did not get the required mean grade of C+ to qualify for direct entry to university. In 2023, this number had stood at 5,283.

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In the 2020 academic season, this number had stood at 6,118 while in 2019, 9,241 students from national schools did not make the cut off mark.

Overall, in 2023, a total of 48,174 candidates scored a mean of grade E. A total of 19,960 females scored grade E while 28,214 were males. In the 2022 results, the number of candidates with a mean grade of E declined to 30,822, compared to 46,151 who got E in the previous 2021 year.

In the 2024 results, 48,000 students scored the lowest mean grade of E while 434,333 scored Ds.