It’s all systems go for national exams season

The government will today launch the 2022 national examination season, touted to be one of the biggest and most challenging ever witnessed in the country.

The ministries of Education, Interior and ICT will jointly launch the exercise this morning, which will entail issuing padlocks and keys to Deputy County Commissioners (DCC) or Assistant County Commissioners (ACC) and Sub-County Directors of Education (SCDE) for exam material containers.

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will for the first time ever administer three exams—KCPE, Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) for Grade Six and KCSE to over three million learners, the largest number ever.

About 1.2 million learners will sit KCPE, 1.3 (KPSEA) and another 800,000 KCSE exams.

KNEC chief executive David Njengere said this will mark the final phase of the revised school calendar, which has led to the administration of five national exams this year.

“Tomorrow (today) we have the launch of national exams season. We are hoping as we have this meeting, we will be able to rally all our stakeholders together so that we can have a successful exams period,” Dr Njengere told People Daily yesterday.

He said the number of containers has risen to 493 this time round, given the increased number of candidates sitting the three exams. “We have a double locking system for containers where either the DCC or ACC, depending on whoever is at the point where the container is, will have one padlock and a security key and the other key is given to the SCDE…those are the two people who open the containers,” he said.

The CEO made the remarks as he also warned Kenyans against falling prey to fraudsters out to mislead them into buying fake 2022 national examination papers.

“I urge all the students to revise for the exams and I wish them well. Let them not waste their money buying fake things because it will be a waste of their time and money. Absolutely nobody has access to those papers,” assured the CEO.

Njengere affirmed that the exams are very secure, nobody has access to them and all learners will only see the papers on the same day and time, once they are opened in the examination room.

Last month, Knec working with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested three university students posing as examination agents and were arraigned in court. Investigations began when Knec received reports that some people had opened several social media platforms to distribute the alleged fake papers.

The exams will lead by newly appointed Cabinet Secretaries namely Ezekiel Machogu, Kindiki Kithure and Eliud Owalo for Education, Interior and ICT respectively.

 Teachers of integrity

At the same time, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has contracted over 250,000 teachers to invigilate this year’s national exams.

“A record number of teachers, more than 250,000, are being lined up for Kenya’s most challenging examination season set to start on November 25. Aware of the challenges likely to be faced in the management of three examinations at the end of the year, TSC sent an early directive to field officers to identify and vet teachers of integrity for the exercise, the most extensive since independence,” said TSC.

TSC said that for every 200 candidates, the County Directors of Education (CDE) are expected to deploy one supervisor.

The Commission further said that no supervisor should be deployed for hosted KPSEA except for centres with KPSEA candidates only. Similarly, for every 20 candidates, the directors are to deploy one invigilator.

Both hosted and hosting centres must have their own centre managers but the hosting centre manager will be expected to collect and return exam materials from the container.

“Take note that the number of supervisors and invigilators should be adhered to especially during optional papers. The centre managers should ensure the only required number of supervisors and invigilators report each day of exams and online attendance is taken on a daily basis. This will ensure teachers will not be idling in exam centres with no role to play,” TSC directed.

KPSEA and KCPE candidates will sit their exams from November 28 – 30 while KCSE papers will end on December 23.

The KPSEA exam for Grade Six learners is expected to guide the transition to Junior Secondary School (JSS) in January.

KPSEA is a combination of candidates’ scores obtained from School Based Assessment (SBA) conducted in Grades Four, Five and Six and the summative assessment to be done next month.

Sub County Directors nominated and vetted national examination officials last month.