KCSE 2019 results will be out before Christmas - Education CS George Magoha

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Friday revealed that the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results are expected to be released before December 25.

CS Magoha assured the public that marking of the exam would begin as scheduled next week and the candidates would have their grades before Christmas day.

The CS was speaking at Kapsisiywa Secondary School in Uasin Gishu County where he presided over the opening of the day's papers.

2019 KCSE results will be out before Christmas - Education CS George Magoha Pulse Live Kenya

According to the 2019 KCSE calendar, candidates will sit for the last papers on Wednesday November 27, officially closing the national exams period.

There are 699,745 candidate sitting for this year's exams.

KCPE results released in record time

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has increasingly become efficient with marking, especially with the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) scripts.

While Dr Fred Matiang'i was the Education CS in 2017, KCPE candidates for the first time received their results before December on November 21. In 2018 the results were released on November 19 and this year KNEC beat its own record by releasing the results on November 14, just 18 days after the candidates completed the exams.

KNEC attributes the speed of marking to optical mark recognition (OMR) machines that have also been able to increase speed of tallying insha and composition marks.