The Education CS, Dr. Fred Matiang’i revealed on Thursday, 26th December that only 141 students out of the registered 574,125 students that sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE 2016) made straight A’s.

Announcing this at Shimo La Tewa High School in Mombasa, Matiang’i noted that only 88,929 candidates scored between C+ and A (plain) contrary to what was obtained in the previous years where numerous candidates pass.

In the logistics industry, this can be related to a sharp drift from the expected demand forecast that was made to predict the inventory, now candidates – that are needed to fill admission list of Kenyan universities.

This decline in the rate of success has so far been connected to the stringent measures employed by the education ministry to curb examination malpractice in the country.

Kenya National examination council (KNEC) boss Mr. George Magoha said that this year’s KCSE is a true reflection of students’ abilities.

“We dare not ruin the future of our children by letting them steal examinations. Candidates who have scored C+ and above will be absorbed into the universities” Mogoha said.

In 2015, a total of 522,870 candidates registered for KCSE, 169,492 scored between C+ and A (plain) and in 2014, a total of 483,630 candidates registered and 149,719 candidates scored between C+ and A.

The fact that only 141 candidates could make an A (plain) this year is a shocking drop from 2,636 candidates that attained the grade last year.

Most top schools that usually register high numbers of A could hardly boast of a straight A this year because this ministry of education was able to curb the culture of examination cheating and leakages that has clouded the KCSE for many years.

For instance, Moi High School Kabarak topped the 2015 KCSE with a mean score of 11.667, having 289 candidates making grades of A and B but this year the school managed two A’s also Maseno school had 285 candidates make A’s and A- with a mean of 11.393 in 2015 but fast forwarding to 2016, they could not produce an A.

From these two examples, as supply chain managers, we learn that as the business (exam malpractice) continues to grow, one can never predict when the logistics version of CS Fred Matiang’i will come to power and flush the system clean.

With the knowledge that giants also fall, in the logistics industry one must be at alert all the time and have plans for unforeseen contingencies.

The students and administration of these schools didn’t imagine that KCSE2016 would take such a turn, they had put all their eggs in one basket which is relying on exam malpractice and exam papers leakage, without putting into consideration that Fred Matiang’i was a good logistics manager as he spared no detail in planning to get his inventories stored, packaged and transported to over 9000 examination centers across Kenya safely with no leakages.

This is a great lesson to be learned, as supply chain managers, we must act with maturity in all situations, maintaining our professionalism, remaining chivalrous, without compromise or maliciously sabotaging the system.

Statistically speaking, KCSE 2016 had a 9.80% increase in the number of registered candidates when compared with the number of candidates from 2015.

There was an increase of 51,255 candidates of which 21,706 were males and 29,549 were females.

A total of 300,995 male candidates and 273,130 female candidates registered for KCSE2016.

A breakdown of the 88,929 candidates that scored C+ and above have shown that:

141 candidates scored an A (plain) – 83 males and 58 females.

4,645 candidates scored an A- (minus) – 1960 males and 2685 females.

10,975 candidates scored a B+ (plus) – 4,394 males and 6581 females.

17,216 candidates scored a B (plain) – 7,012 males and 10,204.

23,745 candidates scored a B- (minus) – 10,096 males and 13,649 females.

32,207 candidates scored a C+ (plus) – 14, 969 males and 17238 females.

This shows that 36.2% of candidates made C+ And above.

It was also noted that the candidates between the ages of 19 & 20 were the largest in number making up 40.09% of the 522,870 registered candidates.

Candidate performance was compared from 2012 to 2016 and it was noticed that there was a reduction in the number of subjects with significantly improved performance (5 subjects) and an increase in the number of subjects with a significant decline in performance (20 subjects).

The ridicule on the internet that CS Matiang’i own son failed with a C-, teaches us tough lessons that: With logistics, the tough terrains favor no one and naturally treat everyone equally!

Now that you know the unsung hero in the process of delivery of the KCSE2016 result is the logistic industry. Please give us your free positive thoughts next time.

Happy New Year, from myself and the entire Sidoman.com family.