Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has announced that Mombasa was the only county in the country to record perfect gender balance in the 2025 Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) registration, marking a rare achievement in national education statistics.
Releasing the results, Ogamba said Mombasa was the single county where boys and girls registered in equal numbers, while 41 others posted higher male entries. He said the outcome showed the value of continued efforts to close the gender gap in junior secondary enrolment.
“Mombasa stands out as the only county that achieved a gender parity of 50 per cent for both male and female learners,” Ogamba said.
He urged counties with wide differences in enrolment to step up community awareness and strengthen support systems that help both boys and girls stay in school.
The CS also shared a detailed age profile of the 1,130,459 learners who sat the 2025 KJSEA, saying it offered a clear picture of how well learners were progressing under the competency-based curriculum.
According to the ministry’s figures, 642,620 learners — 56.84 per cent — were within the recommended age of 14 to 15 years, which Ogamba said showed better alignment between learner age and their level of study.
Another 35,270 candidates, making up 3.12 per cent, were aged 13 and below, while 415,059 learners, or 36.71 per cent, were between 16 and 17 years. The assessment also saw 37,638 adult learners sit the papers, representing 3.33 per cent of the total candidates.
Ogamba said the ministry will continue working to ensure that every learner, regardless of age, gender or background, can progress through the education system without barriers. He added that movement into senior school pathways would be done fairly, based on each learner’s interests and strengths.
“We will continue working with parents, teachers and communities to ensure every Kenyan child has an equal opportunity to progress,” the CS said.
Out of all the candidates who sat the assessment, 578,630 were male while 551,829 were female, giving male learners 51.19 per cent of the total entries against 48.81 per cent for female learners.
Ogamba also expressed satisfaction with the overall conduct of the assessments, noting that officers on the ground responded quickly to challenges.
“I am happy to report that all the learners who registered and presented themselves for the 2025 KJSEA and KILEA assessments successfully sat the assessments despite a few challenges that were appropriately addressed by our field personnel,” he said.
