Source: Daily Nation
The government is well on the way to achieving gender parity at primary school level, Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri has said.

Of the 776,214 candidates that sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams last year, 51.6 per cent were boys and 48.4 per cent were girls.

This means 400,814 boys and 375,400 girls sat the exams.

"That is very close," said the minister. "Nationally, we have achieved near gender parity," he said when releasing KCPE results on Wednesday.

But despite the progress, Prof Ongeri said the same could not be said for 14 counties.

Left behind

He named Kwale, Tana River, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana, Samburu, West Pokot, Kajiado, Narok, Homa Bay, Migori, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera as having more boys than girls sitting the exams.

Counties with more girl candidates than boys were Nyandarua, Embu, Nairobi and Vihiga.

"I urge leaders of these 14 counties to make concerted efforts to attain gender parity," said Prof Ongeri.

"Some of the challenges associated with taking girls to school are cultural, especially in certain communities but I urge those communities to note that there will be no meaningful development when part of their population is left behind," he said.

Prof Ongeri said there had been an increase in the number of exam centres. There were 21,506 centres in 2010 but these rose to 22,154 this year.

• Kenya