The Ministry of Education’s decision to maintain KCSE results access exclusively on an online portal has extended the lockout of mobile network operators from offering SMS-based query services that previously earned them millions of shillings.
For the third consecutive year, candidates have been instructed to access their individual Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results through a link to the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) portal.
“Individual candidates’ examination results will be accessed online through a link on the Knec website … A candidate will be required to enter their index number and one of their names as per the registration data for the 2025 KCSE examination,” said Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba during the latest results release on Friday.
This maintains a departure from the earlier SMS-based system, under which candidates sent their index numbers to a designated short code and received results via text message at a standard charge of Sh50.
Under the now phased-out model, telecommunications firms acted as the delivery platform for examination results, providing nationwide access through basic mobile phones without requiring internet connectivity.
With 993,226 candidates sitting the 2025 KCSE examination, the SMS-based system would have generated close to Sh50 million in gross transaction value if each candidate accessed their results once.
The revenue, while seasonal, was concentrated over a short period and involved near-universal participation across regions and income groups.
The shift to a web-based portal removes this traffic from mobile messaging networks, transferring results access entirely to internet-based infrastructure.
This centralises results dissemination within Knec’s own systems, reducing reliance on third-party platforms and consolidating data access under a single digital channel.
For candidates, access to results now depends on the availability of internet connectivity and internet-enabled devices at the time of release.
While mobile phone penetration in Kenya is high, internet access remains uneven, particularly in rural and low-connectivity regions where basic feature phones remain in use.
In such cases, candidates rely on shared devices, cybercafés, or school administrators to retrieve individual result slips from the portal.
The portal-only model also concentrates demand on Knec’s digital infrastructure during narrow release windows, when large numbers of candidates attempt to access results simultaneously.
This leads to high traffic volumes, often coinciding with intermittent access delays as users attempt to log into the portal shortly after results announcements.
The congestion contrasts with the SMS system, which distributed traffic across mobile networks designed to handle large volumes of simultaneous messages.
The change comes at a time when the number of KCSE candidates continues to rise annually, increasing the load placed on centralised digital systems.
Candidate numbers rose by 3.2 percent in 2025 compared with the previous year, adding to the scale of simultaneous access during results release periods.
The Ministry of Education has previously stated that the digitisation of examination services is part of broader efforts to modernise administration and improve system control.
