Over 200,000 land direct university slots

By Peter Ochieng

Over 200,000 students who sat for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams have landed direct university slots.

According to Cabinet Secretary (CS) for education Ezekiel Ombeki Machogu, a total of 201,133 candidates scored a mean grade of C+ (plus) and above, to earn themselves university placement across the country.

The number is higher than candidates who scored C plus and above in 2022.

Some 173, 345 candidates scored a mean grade of a C plus and above, in 2022.

Speaking while releasing the 2023 KCSE exams at Moi Girls Eldoret on Monday, Machogu attributed the increase to president William Ruto administration's new grading system, which only considers two mandatory subjects while computing the mean grade.

"'This is as a result of the new grading system that reduced the number of subjects required to compute a mean grade,'' he stated.

The mandatory subjects are English, Kiswahili or the Kenya Sign Language (KSL).

Besides the two mandatory subjects, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) considered the candidate's any other five best-performed subjects.

In addition, over 400,000 candidates scored a mean grade of D+ and below in the just released KCSE results.

This constitutes 54.72 percent, where some 125,006 candidates scored a mean grade of D+, while 155, 276 managed a grade D plain.

Further, a total of 165, 861 candidates scored D-. 48, 174 candidates scored E.

A total of 903,260 candidates sat for the 2023 KCSE examinations, administered from October 10 to November 24, 2023.