Following the release of 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination results earlier in the week, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has confirmed the cut-off mark for candidates proceeding to university.
The CS confirmed that the cut-off will be maintained at C+ with significant increase in the number of students joining universities.
246,291 candidates who wrote KCSE in 2024 made the cut, with an additional 46,000 set to join university compared to the previous year when 200,000 qualified.
This means that the universities are going to have more students because we are going to retain the C+ grade as the cutoff for admission to universities.
With the increase comes the familiar challenge of space and funding to cater for more students.
READ: Way forward after court declared higher education funding model unconstitutional
The CS maintained that the government will avail the required resources, including funding to facilitate smooth learning when the 246,000 learners join the various universities in the country.
Kenya’s education sector continues to encounter a myriad of challenges with the government working round the clock to resolve the same as student appear to move from one crisis to the next.
Challenges in Education sector
Frequent strikes have disrupted learning at public universities, with students taking longer than they should in school.
Funding of higher education is among the biggest challenges facing the sector, with the Higher Education Funding Model that was unveiled by President William Ruto’s administration declared unconstitutional by the court.
High Court Judge Chacha Mwita noted that the model is discriminatory since students in Kenya have a right to education.
The variable scholarship and loan funding model is arbitrary, obscure, expensive, undefined and illegality; an affront to the right to education as part of economic social rights.
The respondents have accordingly acted illegally and ultra vires in the implementation of the funding model to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of universities and TVET students and their families.
READ: Education CS breaks down 2024 KCSE exam results by grade
The funding model was opposed by several stakeholders, including parents and students with the government rolling it out nonetheless.
It is only after students threatened to go on strike that a taskforce was formed to address pertinent issues raised.