Raila Reacts to Mass Failure of Candidates in 2017 KCSE Exams

National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga has raised concerns over the mass failure of candidates in 2017 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.

In a statement to the press released on Thursday, the opposition chief called for creation of a taskforce to probe the cause of the terrifying results of this year's form four exams.

“Close to 90 per cent of the KCSE candidates have failed. This is very worrying,” he said.

Results announced on Wednesday by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i show that a mere 70,073 (11 percent) out of the 611,952 candidates who sat for the exam met the minimum university entry requirement of mean grade C+.

Odinga further said that the Ministry of Education must answer the questions raised by parents and teachers’ unions on the mass failure.

“As the country commits resources to free learning and scales up enrolment, the whole purpose and value for money is lost when close to 90 per cent of those students eventually fail,” Odinga said.