How KCPE marks are standardised

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

25 April 2021

Once again, concern has been raised about the way the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) marks are processed. Soon after the ministry of education released the 200 results, some proprietors and managers of private schools have been reported in the press complaining that their pupils’ marks were lowered in order to favour those in public institutions.

To prove their case, they alleged that the mathematics scores of pupils from private schools were lowered by 20 marks. This conclusion was based on the observation that none of their candidates scored above 80 in this subject.

This is simply not true! As one education official put it: “Why would the ministry do such a thing?” The truth is that no candidate scored higher than 80 marks in mathematics.

Even the top student in the country also got 80 marks in this subject! Hence, we must ask: how is that possible? How comes that our brightest pupil could not score 100 in mathematics – a subject where all questions are the multiple-choice type?

The answer lies in standardisation. I explained in detail how this is done in March 2015. In summary, this is a process that fits the results to a normal distribution curve. This done on each subject separately and the formula used is the same each year. It is:

S = 50 + 15x(R – M)/d; where R is the raw marks scored by the candidate, M is the national average for the subject and d is the national average scatter of marks (standard deviation).

Clearly, standardisation is not a matter of simply adding or removing marks from the scores! The bigger question, however, is why this standardisation is necessary. The main reason is that this process neutralises the differences in levels of difficulties between exams. Consequently, comparison of performance between subjects and also from one year to another can be done accurately.

If, for example the raw mean score in mathematics is 35 and in English it is 60, would this indicate that the English exam was easier or that the pupils are better at this subject? We cannot tell unless the marks of both subjects are standardised.

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam is not standardised. For that reason, some subjects consistently record glaringly higher grades than the others. Teachers call them “booster” subjects.

Computer science is one such “booster” at KCSE. I have seen schools where every candidate scores a grade ‘A’! Standardisation would cure such a glaring anomaly.