KCSE Report: Analysis Computer Studies 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

• Since the new syllabus was revised in 2006, Computer studies examinations was done the 9th time in the year 2014 under the new syllabus
• The subject has three papers namely: paper 1 [451/1], papers 2 [451/2] and paper 3 [451/3]
• Paper one is a theory paper, paper two is a practical paper and paper three is a computer project normally developed by the Council but assessed in schools by Computer Teachers

Marks Weight Allocations

Paper 1 always has the lion's share with a total of 100 marks. Paper two and Paper three are moderated then the marks combined to make up 100 marks

Candidates' General Performance

What we can deduce from the General Performance Table above

From the table above, we can deduce that

1. The number of computer candidates has been on the increasing trend
2. Even though the performance of paper 1 improved significantly in 2014, Practical and Project papers performed better than paper 1 over the four year period
3. The performance of Computer studies nationally was above average; this will boost its popularity against her family of technical subjects
4. Performance in both the practical paper (451/2) and the project paper (451/3) dropped minimally from 61.12% in 2013 to 60.58% in 2014 representing 0.8835% decline.
5. Overall performance in the subject improved from a mean of 110.36 in the year 2013 to 113.43 In the year 2014 representing 2.782%.

Topics that teachers need to emphasize on​

1. Computer  systems
2. Data processing modes
3. System development
4. Computer Application Areas and uses
5. Networking
6. Data Security
7. Spreadsheets

Career Choices that directly require computer studies as a cluster subject

There are no career choices that directly acknowledge computer studies as a requirement other than being pooled together with other technical and humanities as a forth choice for most careers, Thus, Computer studies does not have a competitive  edge that could convince students to choose it a career subject. One could think that courses like software engineering, computer science and engineering, IT, ICT require computer studies as a core subject but Alas! Not yet a reality in Kenya