An analysis of performance in english at Kenya certificate of secondary education examination

Abstract

English is an important subject in the Kenya school curriculum as it is the medium of instruction. At secondary school level, it is taught and examined as an integrated subject i.e, with the Language and the Literature parts being taught and examined as one English subject. Past studies and observations indicate that performance in English at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) level has been poor for several years now. This study was prompted by these indications and was intended to analyse performance in English at KCSE Examination in order to verify these sentiments and document the true position. A sample of five years, 1994-1998 has been used in this analysis. The study has identified areas in the English syllabus where students perform well and areas where they perform poorly. It has also compared the overall performance of boys and girls. This study hopes to make a contribution to the limited research that has been. done on performance in English in Kenya's education system. The target population used for the study was the KCSE candidates of each academic year from 1994 to 1998. For each English Examination question, a stratified random sample was used and the results of the analysis presented in narrative, tables and various types of graphs. The results reveal that of the two parts of the English Examination namely; Language and Literature, students perform better in Language than Literature. Language contributes an average of 67% of the total score over the five-year period 1994-1998. They further show that for grades between A and B, girls occupy a higher percentage than boys.