Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has said that a qualifying exam for students who did not sit 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination will not be administered this month as initially planned.

Machogu said that some 9,000 students were expected to sit the exam but a further audit of the number of candidates who failed to sit the examinations; the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has only been able to trace 2,000 eligible learners.

The CS, however, said these students are advised to ensure they sit their individual qualifying examinations by the time they are in Form Three to enable them to be registered to sit the KCSE Examination at Form Four.

“When I released KCPE on November 23, I promised that the Council will administer a supplementary examination for 9,000 candidates who failed to sit the exam. Since the number so far located is small to warrant a national examination, it has been decided that the 2,000 candidates join Form One starting January 15 and be allowed to sit qualifying examinations later,” said the CS.

Validate the data

“I direct the Council to release further guidelines regarding the entry examination,” he added.

Machogu in an interview, said the 2,000 candidates who failed to sit for the examination will be placed in county and sub county secondary schools.

This came even as KNEC Chief Executive, Dr David Njengere announced that registration for this year’s Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)

Njengere said registration will start on January 29 and end on March 29,  a two-month period which he said is more than adequate for schools to register and validate the data to ensure that all bonafide candidates’ details are uploaded and that the data is accurate.

 The CEO also explained that KCSE exam materials will be personalized to individual candidates and therefore candidates who will not be in the  registration database at the end of the registration period will not have examination papers at the end of the year.