Matiang'i made the surprising move after a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta alongside Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) Chairman George Magoha, Education PS Belio Kipsang and Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia.
Kenyans including KNUT officials left shocked as CS announces KCPE results
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) were among millions of other Kenyans left surprised after Education CS Fred Matiang'i released the KCPE results a week earlier than the expected December 8 date.
KNUT Secretary General, Wilson Sossion said they were not aware that the KCPE results would be released on Thursday.
“We had been invited at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) an education reforms stakeholders meeting only to realise the cabinet secretary was to release the results,” Sossion said.
He said that they only learnt of the exam release through the media.
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New move welcome
However he praised the surprising move saying the new "best practice" was welcome and that "students will report to school earlier thus ensuring they settle in quickly."
"The earlier the results are released, the better, so candidates can prepare themselves for the next step. The cohorts will be more prepared and are likely to perform better," he said.
In the results released on Thursday the top candidate scored 436 marks out of 500.
A total of 952,445 pupils sat this for the 2016 examination of which only 5,190 managed to score over 400 marks.
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Compared to last year’s result, this is a 2,000-candidate drop where over 7,000 scored 400 marks and above.
The class eight exam results are normally released a few days before New Year while the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE) in March.
The ripple effect of the CS move now means that form one students will now report to their respective schools on January 9, 2017.
Traditionally, Form One students report to their respective schools in February.
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