All set for March national examinations
The Ministry of Education will on Friday set the stage for the 2021 national examinations when it issues the keys for the containers where the exams material will be stored.
Last year, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) used some 479 containers to store examinations. The containers are normally based at Deputy County Commissioners’ office.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has stated that more than 200,000 teachers will be engaged for administration and management of both Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
“In preparation for administration of these exams, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) requested the Commission to provide details of all centre managers, supervisors and invigilators, who will be engaged in this activity,” said the Commission in a memo to all TSC Regional Directors last month.
TSC County and Sub-County Directors of Education were to identify and nominate centre managers, supervisors and invigilators to be engaged in the administration of exams.
After their identification and vetting, the directors were expected to deploy them into the Contracted Professional (CP) system by February 4.
Class eight candidates will sit their KCPE exams on March 7 while those in Form 4 are scheduled to start their KCSE exams on March 11.
Some 1,225,698 candidates registered to sit the 2021 KCPE, which was an increase of 34,085 compared to 2020.
For 2021 KCSE, there was a 10.42 per cent increase compared to last year. Some 832,026 candidates will sit their KCSE compared to 752,602 last year.
All other classes, from Pre-Primary 1 to Class 7 and Form 1 to 3 are expected to have closed by March 3 to pave way for a conducive examination environment.
Human face
Magoha has constantly affirmed that the exams have been set with a human face and that candidates can handle all the papers.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta directed us that we must ensure exams have a human face and that is precisely what we have taken into account so the children need not be afraid,” assured Magoha.
The CS has also said that the duty at hand is for candidates to prepare themselves to write the exams.
“I want to thank those who have worked with other experts to develop questions, which have now formed the tests for the exams to be done in March and in December,” the CS said.
The CS also assured that the December exams will be ready for administration by the end of next month.
“We are not only going to prepare for exams in March but we also must ensure that whoever takes over the Government next year will find the exam ready and all he will have to do is to implement it,” he said.
All examination centres will have at least 30 candidates, with those with less than the set number merged.
According to Magoha, the merger of examination centres with less than 30 candidates is critical and is part of ensuring efficiency and deterring examination related malpractices.
Magoha said that since 2015, enrolment of candidates in primary and secondary schools, both public and private has increased, which has led to rising costs in terms of payment of centre managers, supervisors, invigilators, security officers and drivers.
This, he said, has been coupled with the high cost of delivering examination materials to schools together with an inadequate number of security personnel to offer security in the examination centres, which has necessitated the change in approach by revising the number of examination centres.
“The Ministry believes that with the reduction of examination centers, monitoring will be conducted more effectively and efficiently to deter the occurrence of examination related malpractices and maintain the integrity of the examination,” said Magoha two months.
Last month, Magoha led senior education officials traveled abroad for the final inspection of the 2021 national exams ahead of shipment.
The exams, which are ready for administration, were expected to be shipped into the country mid this month.
KNEC is gearing up for a tight schedule this year, as it will be expected to deliver five national examinations next year for the first time ever.
The exams are also to be delivered in an election year but the Ministry assured that there will no be changes on the date set for exams.
“This coming year will test whether the transformation we have done at Knec is sustainable or not and the reason is instead of having the two usual exams, we will have five and my orders from the President is that I give all my time to focus on delivery of these exams,” said the CS.
The five exams are 2021 KCPE and KCSE to be written in March while the 2022 KCPE and KCSE and Grade 6 exams are scheduled for December.
“The exams for December will be ready for administration which means it will not matter who takes over as president, we will have delivered what we have to for our children, who are at the centre of all this,” said the CS.
He said the exam is one of the transformative areas and has been successful.
“Six years ago and nobody wanted to be associated with Knec. Now there are many people who will come to see how we are doing it. So forget about politics. Our children going to universities are much better,” he said.
