Irene Githinji @gitshee

Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) George Magoha yesterday extended by two weeks, the registration exercise for candidates who will sit the 2021 national examinations.

Magoha pushed the final deadline for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) registration to August 14.

“The government has decided to extend registration deadline by two weeks, in order to give an opportunity to schools and ensure all candidates are registered in the spirit of leaving no child behind in the education sector,” said Magoha, in a statement.

The registration exercise started on June 2 and was scheduled to close on July 31.

By July 31, Magoha said 1,218,892 candidates in 28,248 centres and another 824,392 in 10,384 centres had been registered for KCPE and KCSE respectively.

The 2021 candidature has increased from the 2020 figure of 1,191,616 for KCPE and 752,602 for KCSE.

Genuine candidates

“This represents an increase of 2.29 per cent and 9.54 per cent in candidature in the 2021 KCPE and KCSE respectively compared to 2020.

The phenomenal increase in KCSE candidature is attributed to the success of government’s policy of 100 per cent transition, which started in 2018,” the CS said.

Magoha reminded all education stakeholders that the exercise should not be charged, saying that the government pays exam fees for all primary and secondary school learners both in public and private schools.

“Schools are only required to register candidates for the exams. Consequently, schools should not force learners to repeat,” directed the CS.

Explaining reasons for deadline extension, Magoha said a number of principals requested the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) to allow them more time to mop up all candidates; who may not have been registered by the deadline owing to reasons like Covid-19.

Magoha urged head-teachers and principals to ensure that genuine candidates are registered for the exam in the final two weeks of the exercise.

“Any candidate who fails to register for the 2021 exam scheduled for March 2022, will only be allowed to sit the exam in December 2022.

Late registration will not be allowed,” said the CS.

He said the registration will be followed with a verification of candidates’ registration details as captured in the 2021 KCPE and KCSE nominal rolls between August 16 and 27.

The CS also directed head-teachers and principals to ensure that duly signed nominal rolls and medical report for candidates with special needs, are submitted to Sub County Directors of Education (SCDE) together with other registration documents.

Magoha also insisted that all primary and secondary schools, public and private, with less than 30 candidates will be hosted in schools within their proximity and localities that have more than that number in accordance with Knec directions.

Exam centres

Early last month, Knec had to reverse its earlier directive, which stipulated that private and public schools with less than 40 candidates be hosted by an exam centre with more than 40 candidates during the 2021 KCPE and KCSE exams.

However, all special need schools will retain their exam centres irrespective of the number of registered candidates.

“For all examination centres with a candidature of less than 30, and which have legitimate hosting challenges, SCDE will seek guidance from Knec on the way forward,” said Magoha.

SCDE are expected to submit the records of hosted schools to Knec by September 10.

All heads of institutions have been urged to ensure accuracy in candidate’s name as per the birth certificate, gender, year of birth, subjects entered and information on different categories on special needs like braille, low vision or deaf.