By Collins Akong’o
As Mombasa national schools; Mama Ngina Girls and Shimo La Tewa reclaimed their titles, Kwale schools disappeared in the national top list.
Education stakeholders in Kwale have maintained that schools in the region posted impressive results despite failing to produce an A in the 2020 KCSE results.
Kwale High and Matuga Girls had many candidates scoring A- (minuses). The two institutions being the national schools mostly known as the county’s best were the region’s last hope.
County Education Director, Martin Cheruiyot, however said Kwale schools deserve medals for recording improved results.
For example, Matuga Girls produced 7 A- (minuses) with a mean score of 7.828 compared to the 2019 class that managed only a single A- (minuses) with a mean score of 7.097.
Kwale High had a mean grade of 7.74 with 9 A- (minuses) compared to the 2019 mean grade of 7.01.
Kinango Secondary registered two B+ (plus), six B plain, 15 B- (minus), 27 C+, 43 C, 28 C- and 10 D+ with a mean grade of 6.267.
Kaya Tiwi High School had a single B+ (plus).
Cheruiyot said the results indicated a general rise in the performance curve adding that many students attained the university entry points.
“If we try to reason out, we can say that our schools have performed well because getting an A- (minus) is not a joke and the mean scores can speak for themselves,” he said.
The director said that the long holidays resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the reasons that made Kwale schools not produce top results. He added that the environment was not conducive for learners to engage in online studies suggested by the government.
He however thanked the students for the excellent performance saying they did their best despite the challenges.
A total of 7,046 candidates sat for the 2020 KCSE exam in the region. The number of KCSE candidates, however, dropped compared to the 15,177 KCPE candidates in 2016.
Kwale is among 15 counties that had more girls than boys who registered for the KCSE exam.
In between 2016 up-to mid-2019, the county recorded the highest number of teen pregnancies with some being married off.
According to the United Nations Population Funds 2019 data, Tana River, Kwale and Kilifi had the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancies at the Coast, with Kwale figures standing at 24 per cent, higher than the national average of 18 per cent.
