D-Day as over 2m candidates set to sit KPSEA, KCPE exams

More than two million Standard Eight and Grade Six learners commence their national examinations this morning, representing the highest number to ever sit the primary school national tests.

This will also mark the first time Grade Six candidates will be sitting a national exam after the introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum in 2017.

According to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), all exam containers will be opened at 6am, and officials have given an undertaking that adequate security measures have been put in place to ensure exam materials are delivered safely to all centres.

“Containers for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will be opened at 6am,” said KNEC chief executive Dr David Njeng’ere.

Containers with Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) papers will be opened at 7am.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu will lead a team of senior government officials in supervising exams across the country. He will supervise the opening from Mombasa.

Stringent measures have been put in place to ensure smooth administration of the exams. For instance, police officers will be required to sign an accountability document to safeguard the integrity of the second session papers as part of a campaign to prevent exam leaks.

Similarly, no private vehicles will be allowed to ferry exam materials from the containers to the exam centres.

Rehearsals for Grade Six and Standard Eight were conducted on Friday.

Today, KCPE candidates will sit for three papers; Mathematics, English language and composition. Their KPSEA counterparts will take Mathematics and English Language.

Tomorrow, KPSEA candidates will sit their Integrated Science and Kiswahili papers while KCPE candidates will have Science, Kiswahili and Insha papers.

While KPSEA learners will take Creative Arts and Social Studies on the third and last day, KCPE candidates will be sitting their Social Studies and Religious Education papers. Other than Composition and Insha, all the other papers comprise multiple-choice questions.

“We want to wish all candidates the very best in their exams, we know they have worked hard for the last eight or six years, depending on the exams they are sitting for,” said Njeng’ere.

Compared to previous years, the number of containers has risen to 493 this time round, given the increased number of candidates sitting for the three exams.

The containers have a double locking system, which requires that either the Deputy County Commissioner or Assistant County Commissioner, depending on whoever is at the point where the container is, will have one security key and the other key will be with the Sub-County Director of Education.

“Those are the two people who will open the containers,” said the exams officials, who also said security measures had been put in place to ensure that the exams are not leaked.

James Kuria, a KPSEA candidate at Gilgil Hills Academy, said he was prepared for the national exams but cited high levels of anxiety being in the first cohort of candidates under CBC. “I am fully prepared but we have nobody to look up to as having ever sat for KPSEA in the past. We are looking forward to join junior secondary early next year,” he said.

Fridah Loigero, another candidate at St Peters’ Elite School, said that she was ready to be a trailblazer for KPSEA. “I believe there won’t be a lot of difference between the national exam and the assessments we have been taken through since we were in Grade Three,” said Loigero.

New classrooms

The exams are being taken amidst anxiety on whether Junior Secondary School (JSS) should be domiciled in primary or secondary schools.

The presidential task force on eductaion reforms  has been collecting views on how best to reform the education sector, with CBC being at the centre of the debate. Stakeholders in the education sector have indicated that they are ready to host junior secondary students in primary schools. This might, however, necessitate renaming, depending on the findings of a task force set up to recommend a review of the new curriculum.

A spot check revealed that most schools will not have a challenge with the proposal as the Grade Seven students will use the classrooms that the current KCPE candidates who will transition to secondary schools have been using.

Some private schools, however, have built and sectioned off new classrooms for Junior Secondary learners, who will also be issued with different uniforms to distinguish them from their primary counterparts. Some schools like Gilgil Hills Academy, which produced the best KCPE 2021 candidate nationally, and Roots Academy have already set up separate facilities for junior secondary students.

Gilgil Hills Head teacher Cephas Mwangi said: “We have already started recruiting teachers for the Junior Secondary”.

At St Peters’ Elite, head teacher Linet Yugi said that they have five classes that will remain vacant with the transitioning of the KCPE candidates to secondary school.

“The classes that will remain vacant after Standard Eight pupils leave will be our Junior Secondary facility. We have plans for construction of laboratories next month,” she said. The school has already released a new school uniform that will be different from that of the primary section.

In Nyamira South, Deputy County Commissioner Florence Obunga confirmed that all was set for the exams to be administered in that region.

“All our security machinery is ready to ensure that the examinations are carried out smoothly with the credibility they deserve and with no insecurity incidents reported,” she told People Daily.

According to her, the security command had issued an operation order dubbed ‘Operation Linda Mtihani’, which will ensure tight security is maintained throughout the examination period, in all examination centres and for all candidates.

“All the examination centre managers, supervisors and invigilators have been adequately briefed and know what is expected of them,” Obunga said.

A standby team of security officers who will deal with any unforeseen exam related emergencies has also been set up to ensure the exams are undertaken as scheduled without interruptions. “I’m sending a solemn appeal to parents and caregivers of all our candidates to ensure they give candidates all the needed support for them to write their exams confidently,” Obunga said.

She sternly warned any person who might be planning to interfere with or compromise the integrity of the examinations that they will be dealt with severely.

Nyamira South Sub County has 4,493 KPSEA candidates who will undertake their exams in 133 examination centres. Another 6,350 KCPE candidates will to sit their exams from 124 centres while 5,173 KCSE candidates will take the exams from 50 centres.