The Watchdog

A smaller number of candidates pushed up marginalised and arid counties in national KCSE ranking, helping them to trounce economic giants like Nairobi, Kiambu, Kajiado and Nyeri. According to the Kenya National Examinations Council, Samburu was the best performing county. However, a closer analysis reveals that it neither has any candidate in the top 100 nationally nor any top-ranked school. Siaya, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Trans Nzoia completed the list of best-performing counties. But it is all a numbers game. Because counties are ranked on the average performance of all its students, regions with fewer candidates got an advantage over the more populous — and prosperous — ones. Eight of the top 10 counties registered less than 10,000 candidates, numbers that could have helped them to tilt the scales upwards even without a sterling performance from individual students. The counties are ranked based on averages of performance index of all their candidates....

            County schools challenge national schools in KCSE 2013 performance I take this opportunity to congratulate county schools for their outrageous performance in K.C.S.E 2013. It is a clear indication that despite these schools having the second category of the average students they straggle to turn all locks and emerge victorious. Thirty six percent of top 100 schools nationally were county schools. Few days ago, the government standardized the secondary school fees, which had hiked due to the large number of pupils who wanted to join national schools However there is a bigger problem rather than school fees; how to treat our students with the equality they deserve. There should be another step, a step to re organize the whole education system in order to have good and quality education.   Thousands of students in Kenya end up terminating their education due to lack of school fees or failure in their exams ....