The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has acted upon its directive of removing schools that have fewer than 40 registered candidates from the list of examination centres.
This has surprised many Kenyans since the council recently announced a significantly increased number of registered Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) students. As compared to candidates who sat for their national examinations last year, the council has now revealed an increase of 112,000 candidates.
Upon the implementation of the directive, KCPE examination centres have reduced by 138 to 28,329 while KCSE examination centres now stand at 10,413, after 24 centres were removed.
In KNEC’s May directive, all schools that have less than 40 candidates were ordered to merge with neighbouring schools and register as a single examination centre.
Most of the schools that have been affected by the directive are mostly private schools that have less than 40 candidates.
In previous years, the council allowed a minimum of 15 candidates. This worked out well for many private schools which have now had to merge with the neighbouring schools.
Regarding candidates numbers, this year had 78,424 more students registered to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. For the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), 34,085 more students are set to sit for the national examinations this year.
KNEC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Njeng’ere yesterday said that the increase of candidates who registered for the national examinations is an indication that more learners complete secondary education.
“It will obviously cost more to administer the examinations. The 100% transition policy is bearing fruit, so we cannot complain but celebrate that more children manage to complete secondary education,” said David Njeng’ere.
Due to the higher number of students registered to sit for the national examinations this year, the council has hired 4,200 more examiners as they prepare for the national examinations that will be done this year. Of the 4,200 examiners, 700 are to mark Composition and Insha for the KCPE while 3,500 more examiners were recruited and shall mark English, Kiswahili, Agriculture, History and Government, Biology, Chemistry and Christian Religious Education (CRE).
If the set dates do not change, KCPE examinations will be done between 7th and the 9th of March next year (2022) while the KCSE examinations will be done between February 28th 2022 and 1st April 2022.
