More than 6,000 candidates from Bunyala sub-county in Budalangi constituency of Busia County are fully set to tackle the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
The KPSEA and KCPE exams will kick off on November 28 and end on November 30, 2022, while the KCSE will be done between November 21 and December 23, 2022.
Of the total exam candidature in Bunyala sub-county, 2,651 grade six candidates comprising 1,341 girls and 1,310 boys will sit for the KPSEA exam.
Other 2,394 candidates, out of which 1,231 are girls and 1,163 boys, will appear for the KCPE exam, and 1,047 candidates, 463 girls and 584 boys, will write the KCSE exam this year.
In an interview with The Scholar Media Africa at the Bunyala sub-county headquarters a few days ago, Bunyala sub-county Director of Education
Mr. George Owuoche said the Education Ministry has already put effective measures in place to ensure the three exams are done
in a secure and conducive environment.
“All the 6,092 candidates from Bunyala sub-county intending to appear for the KPSEA, KCPE and KCSE exams are fully prepared and ready to go,” says the education official.
Mr. Owuoche says the grade six students have been going through formative assessments from grades one to six.
He further says the exams the grade six candidates are going to sit for will mark the end of summative assessment.
Flooding threat
He said the previous exams had been marred by flooding, making it extremely difficult for the examination officials to ferry exams to
some primary and secondary schools.
The most affected were Musoma Primary and Secondary schools in the flood-prone Bunyala South, which were isolated by floods and students had to commute by boat.
“In previous years, the distribution of exam materials to a section of learning institutions in the flood-prone areas of Bunyala South has
been a major challenge; exam officers had to resort to using boats to ferry the exam materials to those institutions,” says Mr. Owuoche.
However, the education official expressed confidence saying this year he expects the exercise to be carried out smoothly without any hitch
considering that the rain is minimal.
Covid-19 disruption
“The outbreak of Covid-19 had drastically affected the strategy we had put in place that would have enabled us to achieve our target of
position one in the county, but we managed to obtain position three.
However, we are confident our students will perform exceptionally well this time round,” says Owuoche.
He says over a hundred students from Bunyala sub-county qualified to join public universities.
St Benedict’s High School-Budalangi
The Principal of St Benedict’s Budalangi High School, Mr. Stephen Ogola, is confident his school will perform exceptionally well this time round.
In 2021, the school qualified 35 students for university, despite the unfortunate outbreak of Covid-19 that shook the entire county’s education system.
“Last year, we managed to take only 35 students to the university, but this time around, I am confident that our school is going to perform
exceptionally well because our candidates are fully prepared to tackle the exam head-on,” said the school head.
Challenges
He says the key challenge the school is facing, and which had almost ended up bringing down the school’s effective administration, is non-payment of school fees.
He says this has made it extremely hard to run the school effectively. The Principal is, however, urging parents to do everything at their
disposal, despite the economic hardships they are currently going through to ensure they pay the outstanding fees.
“The main challenge we are facing is non-payment of school fees. On that note, we are appealing to parents to repay the fee balances to
enable us to manage the school effectively,” said Ogola.
2021 KCPE results analysis
Out of the 43 registered primary schools in the sub-county, Lake Breeze Academy, established in 2019, registered 22 candidates, seven boys and fifteen girls, in the 2021 KCPE exam and scooped position one.
Roshen Lakeview Academy, a new school, registered a total of 16 candidates.
The learning institution took position two in the sub-county with Sirimba Primary School, which registered 55 candidates and grabbed position three.
In Bunyala sub-county, a total of 2305 candidates, comprising 1191 boys and 1126 girls, sat for the KCPE examination in 2021 as compared to 2394 candidates comprising 1231 girls and 1163 boys gearing to sit for the same in 2022, an increase of 89 candidates.
2021 KCSE subject analysis
In terms of subject analysis, St Benedict’s High School Budalangi was first in the English subject, registering a mean score of 4.47, Sisenye Mixed Secondary school was second with a mean score of 4.31, whereas St Anne’s Bunyala Girls took position three with a mean score of 4.26.
In Kiswahili, St Benedict’s High School took the first position after registering a mean score of 6.59, St Anne’s Bunyala Girls took the second position with a mean score of 5.98, whereas St Cecilia Namenya Girls took position three with a mean score of 5.45.
In Maths, St Benedict’s High School maintained the lead taking position one, having a mean score of 3.41; Sisenye mixed secondary took position two after registering a mean score of 2.99, with St Anne’s Bunyala girls taking position three after registering a mean score of 2.33.
In biology, St Benedict’s High School maintained its academic prowess after the learning institution scooped position one by registering a
mean score of 4.32, defeating St Triza Mundere Girls, which took position two after achieving a mean score of 3.89 with Sisenye
Mixed, getting a mean score of 3.18. John Osogo Secondary School carried the day with a mean score of 6.44 in Physics, trouncing its key academic stalwarts St Benedict’s High School, which had a mean score of 3.24 and Sisenye secondary, whose mean score was 3.13.
In chemistry, History and Computer studies, St Benedict’s High School maintained the lead by scoring a mean score of 2.88, 9.08 and 9.75
respectively.
Its academic rivals, John Osogo Secondary and Sisenye Secondary, garnered a mean score of 2.87 and 2.54, respectively, with St Anne’s Bunyala Girls taking position four with a mean score of 2.53.
In a nutshell, St Benedict’s High School-Budalangi maintained a sweeping lead in sciences and mathematics hence emerging number three in the entire Busia County.
“Taking the above academic performance into account, I believe our school will do far much better in this year’s Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education examination.
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I also have confidence that many students will achieve good grades that would usher them to the university,” said Mr. Ogola, St Benedict’s High School Principal.
