Kenya National Examinations Council data released on 22 November 2018 shows that women continue to dominate Primary Teacher Education, with more female candidates sitting the test than men over the past five years.
The report says 17,879 women took the PTE examination this year, compared with 11,651 men. Last year, 13,646 female candidates sat the tests against 10,402 male candidates.
The same trend was recorded in earlier years. In 2016, 10,587 female candidates sat the examination, while 8,555 men did so. In 2015, the figures were 10,003 women and 8,656 men. In 2014, 9,410 candidates were female and 7,881 were male.
PTE is a certificate-level examination taken by teacher trainees at the end of a two-year course. The report says the pattern means women make up the majority of the more than 290,000 teachers registered by the Teachers Service Commission.
Public teacher training colleges have also continued to draw more students than private colleges, according to the report released last week.
Performance at the top end remains very limited. Over the last five years, only 105 candidates out of 109,079 trainees scored a distinction. This year, 21 of the 29,530 candidates who sat the examination achieved that grade, up from five last year.
The report also shows that 266 candidates failed this year and will have to repeat the year. Another 10,457 will sit supplementary examinations next year, compared with 12,438 candidates who failed in 2017.
Failure rates have varied over the five-year period. The report places 2017 at 12,438 failures, 2016 at 6,267, 2015 at 4,358 and 2014 at 2,074.
The Ministry of Education lowered entry grades to teacher training colleges from C to D+ this year to benefit 17 marginalised counties. The PTE examination is assessed in 14 subjects, across 21 papers, together with teaching practice.
Nyakundi Report notes that the KNEC figures point to a profession still attracting more women than men, even as the number of candidates who perform well remains small.
