We are getting some clarity from the recent Economic Survey that has been released in 2024 done for the years 2023. Part of the details we are now getting is on the total number of students with disabilities that have completed secondary education. The report indicates an uptick in the number of registered KCSE special needs students across Kenya in 2023. According to the economic survey report 2024, the total number of students with special needs went up by 3.8 percent rising from 2,175 in 2022 to 2,258 in 2023.
We also have some insights on the total number of each gender making up these group, of the special needs students, male students made up 55.0 percent while females constituted 45.0 percent of all registered Special Needs Education (SNE) students during that time.
The report is also able to indicate the type of disabilities that the special needs students constituted with those registered as physically handicapped increasing by 14.7 percent representing a shift from 830 in 2022 to 952 in 2023 representing a share of 42.2 percent of all special needs students. Conversely there was a decrease of 13.0 percent in low vision candidates to a total of 475. On the other hand, there was an increase of hearing-impaired candidates by 2.1 percent to 683 in 2023. The number of candidates who were blind increased by 13.8 per cent from 130 in 2022 to 148 in 2023.
The report also shows an increase in the number of centers offering KCSE exams, which rose from 10,516 in 2022 to 10,651 in 2023. In the same period, the number of registered KCSE candidates rose by 2.2 per cent to 903,138, with the number of males and females growing by 1.7 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
There was an increase in performance with more candidates achieving Grade C+ and above translating to an increase of 15.3 percent from 174,505 in 2022 to 201,142, in 2023. Notably the number of female candidates who attained C+ and above saw a rise of 24.9 percent to reach 96,247. Similarly male candidates achieving these grades also increased by 7.6 percent to reach 104,895.