KCSE: Was it a case of premature joy for the girl child?
As the KCSE 2017 results were announced on Wednesday, Education CS Fred Matiang’i said female candidates had performed better than their male counterparts.
This was crowned by the fact that Pangani Girls was not only named the most improved school but also churned the top candidate Karimi Naomi.
Another girl, Sharon Chepchumba from Moi Girls Eldoret took position two as Kamau Brian Maina from Alliance High School settled for the third position.
In the top schools, girls schools shone with Singore Girls High in Elgeyo Marakwet ranked first, Light Academy in Mombasa second, followed by Alliance Girls School, Kenya High School and Loreto Girls School in Limuru at position five.
ALL GRADES
But despite dominating the top positions, boys outshone the girls in all grades save for D- (Minus).
Male candidates who scored straight As were 81 compared to 61 girls. An even bigger gulf emerged in A- (Minus) where there were 1,813 males compared to only 901 females.
There were 4,596 boys with the B+ (Plus) grade compared to 2,748 girls, for B (Plain) it was 7,738 males compared to 4,890 females, while for B- (Minus) it was 11,631 males compared to 7,754 females.
Some 15,828 male candidates scored C+ (Plus) compared to 12,032 females, while 21,506 boys managed C plain compared to 18,968 girls.
SIMILAR PATTERN
A similar pattern was witnessed in C- (Minus) with 31,206 male candidates compared to 29,834 girls.
In D+ (Plus), it was 45,522 boys against 42,925 girls, while 68,572 boys got D (Plain) compared to 66,978 girls.
The trend was only different for in the D- (Minus) grade as 88,040 boys managed that grade compared to 91,341 female candidates.
In grade E, male candidates were 18,345 compared to 17,191 female candidates.
Overall the male candidates were more than the female candidates for each grade save for D- (Minus).