In School, but not Learning
In School, But Not Learning: 80% or 8 out of 10 Kenyan Children Fail Their KCSE National Examination After 12 years of Schooling.
Prof. Olubayi Olubayi
Imagine a business that manufactures products, but only 2 out of 10 products are good enough to sell. How long would such a business last? That is the situation with the expensive public education system in Kenya. Only 2 out of 10 children pass the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination after 12 years of schooling. See the Kenya Government examination results for 2022 at the following link: https://knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
The Kenya Government spends approximately 20% of its annual budget on this broken system of public education. The budget for 2022/2033 is Ksh 544.4 Billion (https://www.treasury.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Budget-Statement-for-the-FY-2022-23_F.pdf). And the mass failure is the same each year.
There are many reasons for this mass failure. And there are many potential solutions, but first we should begin with the awareness that the school system is failing the children. Kenya has achieved near universal school attendance, but not universal learning. The evidence from the official examination of the Kenya Government, KCSE, indicates that the public education system is not working. The country is funding failure, and the victims are the majority of the children, and the lowered development potential of Kenya.
I urge readers to visit the links that I have provided to the official Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) website to confirm for themselves these unbelievable, yet true, data.
If you ask a well-educated Kenyan professional, or ordinary citizen, to guess the pass rate for the national form four (grade 12) examinations, the KCSE, most of them will guess 70% pass or 80% pass. I have been asking this question to hundreds of Kenyans each year over the last 10 years and their answers are still the same. The truth is very different from what most Kenyans think and believe. The truth is that only 20% or less ever pass the KCSE national examination. And the saddest part of this story is that most of the 20% who pass went to private primary schools or academies for their foundation primary schooling of grades 1 to 3. Almost all the children of the truly poor, who cannot afford private primary schools, simply fail after attending school for 12 years. They are attending, but they are not learning as confirmed by the Government’s own KNEC results and data.
On January 20th 2023, the Daily Nation, which is the most respected newspaper in Kenya ran the headline “the majority of 2022 KCSE students get low grades.” (https://nation.africa/kenya/news/education/machogu-releases-2022-kcse-exam-results–4092458)
The Daily Nation was referring to the results that had just been officially announced by the minister for education who stated that only 173,345 out of a total of 881,416 students who sat the grade 12 (form four) national examination had passed with a grade of C+ and above. This translates to 20% pass or 2 out of 10 passing, or 80% failing to earn a grade of C+ and above, where C+ is a cumulative score of only 50%. A grade of C+ is the minimum grade 12 (or form four) national examination score that qualifies one to study for a degree program at a university in Kenya.
This low pass rate of only 20% for the year 2022, is the highest in the last 7 years. And it can be confirmed quickly by visiting the website of the Kenya Government National Examinations Council at the following link: https://knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
For comparison, In Mauritius which has the best education system in Africa, the pass rate for the school certificate examination in 2022 was 78% (https://gis.govmu.org/News/SitePages/School-Certificate-2022–Pass-Rate-of-78.49–achieved-for-the-Republic-of-Mauritius.aspx). Comparing to other continents, the pass rate in Malaysia is 55% (https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2022/06/16/over-9600-spm-candidates-score-straight-as-55-get-pass-in-all-subjects). The percentage of students passing GCSE in the UK with a grade of C or higher was 73%, and those attaining a grade of A or higher was 26% which is higher than those simply passing with a C+ or higher in Kenya (https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53682466). In France, the pass rate for the baccalaureate is usually around 80%.
Here is a table that shows the pass rates for the national Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination over the last 7 years:
Table 1: KCSE National Examination Pass Rates Compiled from the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Website.
Year of KCSE Exam | Total Sitting the KCSE Exam | Total Passing with Grade of C+ and above | Percent Pass Rate (C+ and above) | Out of every 10 how many passed with C+ and above? |
---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 881,416 | 173,345 | 20% | 2 out of 10 passed |
2021 | 826,807 | 145,145 | 18% | 2 out of 10 passed |
2020 | 747,161 | 143,140 | 19% | 2 out of 10 passed |
2019 | 697,222 | 125,746 | 18% | 2 out of 10 passed |
2018 | 660,204 | 90,377 | 14% | 1 out of 10 passed |
2017 | 611,952 | 70,073 | 12% | 1 out of 10 passed |
2016 | 574,125 | 88,929 | 16% | 2 out of 10 passed |
References:
- Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) KSCE examination results from 2016 to 2022 can be accessed from the following links:
- https://www.knec.ac.ke/2023/01/29/2022-kcse-essential-statistics/
- https://knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
- https://knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2020-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
- https://knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/DOC-2-2019-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
- https://www.knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018-KCSE-EXAMINATION-ESSENTIAL-STATISTICS.pdf
- Media reports on Kenya national examinations 2016 to 2022:
- Daily Nation 2023: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/education/machogu-releases-2022-kcse-exam-results–4092458
- Citizen News 2017: https://citizen.digital/news/71-of-2017-kcse-candidates-scored-d-plus-and-below-186166/
- Standard Media 2016: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/education/article/2000229055/revealed-knecs-list-of-top-schools-from-2016-kcse
- Dokumen 2016: https://dokumen.tips/education/2016-kcse-examination-essential-statistics.html?page=1
- Education News Hub: https://educationnewshub.co.ke/the-latest-kcse-grading-system-per-subject/
- World Bank Reports on Education worldwide including Kenya:
- Expenditures as % of GDP: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=KE
- Expenditures on education: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/wDashboard/dqexpenditures
- Kenya GDP: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099400212072220291/pdf/P1797690ba796602b092ba0149f48220ed7.pdf
- Education: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/13143?show=full
- World Fact Book:
- Kenya’s economy: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kenya/#economy
- Reports on Kenya’s education budget:
- Kenya Wall Street: https://kenyanwallstreet.com/the-allocations-and-efficiency-in-spending-on-education-has-been-increased-to-improve-outcomes-as-a-result-access-to-education-at-all-levels-has-improved-remarkably-as-evidenced-by-increased-enrolme/
- Kenya Treasury: https://www.treasury.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Budget-Statement-for-the-FY-2022-23_F.pdf
- Kenya Treasury: https://www.treasury.go.ke/images/docs/Budget_Estimates_FY_2021_22.pdf
- MIT Poverty Action Lab
- Children in school but not learning: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/case-study/teaching-right-level-improve-learning
- Comparisons to other countries
- UK: BBC (2022). GCSE results 2022: How were grades decided? https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53682466
- Mauritius: (https://gis.govmu.org/News/SitePages/School-Certificate-2022–Pass-Rate-of-78.49–achieved-for-the-Republic-of-Mauritius.aspx).
- Malaysia: https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2022/06/16/over-9600-spm-candidates-score-straight-as-55-get-pass-in-all-subjects)
- Unicef on SDGs