Nairobi — The number of KCPE candidates scoring below 100 marks declined to 724 candidates in 2022 from 1,170 candidates in 2021.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said Wednesday that the figures demonstrate improvement in performance citing the growth of overall candidature in the country over a two-year period.

"This was an indicator that most candidates scored better grades than the previous year," Machogu said when he presided over the official release of the 2022 KCPE examination results.

He noted that the overall performance of candidate improved compared to 2021 despite the challenges faced by this cohort of candidates including the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Machogu, the mark of the highest candidate rose four points from 428 in 2021 to 431 in 2022.

He pointed out that another positive indicator of better candidates' performance was demonstrated in the mean average performance.

CS Machogu stated that data analysis shows that more than half of all the candidates who sat the examination (619,583) scored between 200 and 299 marks as compared with 578,106 who posted similar performance in 2021.

"We are therefore very impressed with the KCPE Examination class of 2022 for performing very well and raising the standards of the mean performance," he said.

Machogu lauded candidate with special needs for achieving impressive results with 39 candidates with special needs scoring 400 marks and above compared with only two in 2021.

"The first candidate with special needs scored 419 marks more than the top candidate in 2021 who scored 417," the Education CS said.