A 2023 KCPE candidate from Kakamega County’s Shinyalu constituency was relieved to learn that the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) had changed her score from 358 to 409.
When Prudence Shalimba, 13, of Ileho Village, got her KCPE results last week, she was taken aback.
When the results were revealed by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu last week, Prudence, a former student of Mukango Hope Academy, who was index one, was not expecting a good score.
“I was happy that the results were out, however, the happiness was short-lived when my father told me that I had scored 358 marks, I was so devastated because those were not my true marks,” she said.
Adding:
“My parents talked to me and told me they would seek redress which they did and on Sunday while I was in church, my mother came to where I was sitting and showed me the new results I had now scored 409 which made me top in my class from position three.”
“I have never scored below 80 in Kiswahili and 400 marks overall and definitely I knew there was a problem, and the second results were my real grades. I hope to join Kenya High and become a surgeon in the future,” said Prudence.
Prudence’s mother Gladys Shalimba said she had initially been awarded 358 marks which they disputed considering that their child had never scored below 400 marks in her previous tests.
“When we sent a text inquiring about the results, we were shocked to receive 358 marks with 36 marks in Kiswahili, we suspected something was wrong. My daughter could not score poorly in Kiswahili which is her favorite subject,” said Ms Shalimba.
The mother of three said the family resorted to seeking a review of the score and on Friday they wrote to Knec stating that the results were not the true reflection of what the candidate had been scoring.
“My daughter was depressed over the poor results, we are urging Knec and the Ministry of Education to be keen when releasing the results to avoid confusion among parents and students,” said Shalimba.