The Ministry of Education in Kenya has made changes to the grading system of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams. This was announced during a press conference by the ministry on Monday 25th 2023.
In the changes that would take effect beginning with this year’s KCSE, only two subjects will determine a students overall grade. In other words, there will be only two mandatory subjects for grading. These two will be mathematics and one of the best performed languages. There are three language subjects in Kenya and these are English, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language.
Therefore, a student will have to record his or her grade in mathematics then add one of the best grade out of the three languages. After this, any other five best performed subjects will be considered for determining the student’s overall grade. This brings a change to the old system where mandatory subjects were gotten from three major cluster groups of mathematics, English and Kiswahili, two sciences and two humanities.
According to the ministry, these changes are meant to ensure many students pass their KCSE exams to join institutions of higher learning in Kenya by increasing their chances of passing.
