KPSEA and KCSE exams will begin after schools break for the holiday.
As attention turns to this year’s national exams and assessments, schools will close starting this week.
Next Tuesday, October 22, is the start of this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam. It will go for a month, ending on November 22.
The Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) includes the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), which will be given from October 28 to November 1.
While 1,303,913 students will take the KPSEA in 35,573 locations across the country, 965,501 candidates will sit for the KCSE at 10,755 exam centers.
Ahead of the national examinations the following week, President William Ruto declared on Thursday that all KCSE and KPSEA preparations were finished.
“All required materials are available, and supervisors and invigilators have been appointed. Following a meeting with representatives from the education sector, the president tweeted,
“The ministries of Education and Interior have been directed to ensure that the security and integrity of the examinations are not compromised.”
Key education stakeholders, including Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) CEO David Njengere, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, and Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, informed President Ruto on the final preparations for the 2024 KCSE and KPSEA exams.
More than two million candidates will take the examinations, and the conference signaled the end of the preparation process.
According to the Standard, examiners who participated in this year’s exam on Thursday finished a required sensitization exercise that started on October 7.
A total of 246,151 field officers—103,125 for the KCSE and 143,026 for the KPSEA—will administer these tests.
These officers will ensure that the tests go smoothly by acting as center managers, supervisors, invigilators, security guards, and drivers. Additionally, Knec has hired 32,480 examiners for the marking procedure, which is scheduled for November and December.
For the first time, individualized question papers with each student’s name and index number printed on them will be distributed, and supervisors and invigilators will alternate between schools to reduce the possibility of exam fraud.
In order to prevent such leaks, KNEC CEO David Njengere announced at the start of the exam season in early October that all exam officials would have to turn in their cell phones at the start of each exam session.
“A security officer will keep an eye on these phones, which will be stored in lockable desks. The center supervisor will keep the key,” Njengere stated.
All exam officials are required to disclose any conflicts of interest in order to further ensure transparency.
According to the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) norms, teachers who are invigilators or supervisors will not be assigned to schools where they are presently employed, have previously worked, or have family ties.
Since children will no longer take the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) test, this year’s KPSEA represents a significant change in Kenya’s primary education system.
KPSEA, which is intended to assess pupils’ progress under the CBC and ease their transition to junior secondary school, will be implemented in primary schools for the first time in 39 years.
CS According to Julius Ogamba, the KPSEA will emphasize competency-based evaluation and provide a more laid-back exam setting than the high-stakes KCPE.
According to Ogamba, the modifications are a part of larger initiatives to guarantee that students’ knowledge and abilities are efficiently tracked as they go through the educational system.
KPSEA and KCSE exams will begin after schools break for the holiday.
