The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) yesterday issued a two-week ultimatum to the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to pay examiners who marked the 2022 examinations, failure to which they will mobilise members to occupy Mitihani House.

The union complained that, since the teachers completed the marking of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in January, more than 40,000 examiners have not been paid their wages. Delays in the payment of the allowances have become a perennial problem for Knec.

In a statement by Kuppet chair Omboko Milemba, the union also complain about low rates for marking, an issue that saw some teachers boycott the marking of CRE Paper One at St Francis Girls High School in Mang’u in Kiambu County.

“The assignment came after a heavily-packed school year in which teachers hardly took a break from work. The work itself is characterised by poor conditions including long hours, poor accommodation in students’ dormitories, poor diets and, above all, low pay,” Mr Milemba said.

He added that the conditions have remained unaddressed for long, terming the marking “a suffering ritual” for teachers.

Knec collaborates with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to deploy teachers to invigilate and supervise national examinations and later mark them. As those involved are contracted by Knec, the council foots the bill. This will, however, change once the competency-based curriculum is fully implemented in both primary and secondary schools. The examinations will be replaced by school-based assessments which are administered within the regular school timetable.

The last cohort of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates will sit their examination this year and will also be the last to sit the KCSE in five years. Each candidate for KCPE requires Sh800 while KCSE examinations cost Sh5,400.

In budget proposals for the 2023/2024 financial year, Knec has been allocated over Sh5 billion for the administration of national examinations. The Grade Six assessment will take Sh1 billion, KCPE Sh942 million and KCSE Sh3.082 billion. This will, however, be reviewed by the National Treasury will assign the final figure to the government budget.

Knec had requested Sh6,847 billion, meaning that it will have a deficit of Sh1,823 billion.

In an apparent reaction to the Mang’u incident, TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia urged teachers to be patriotic while undertaking the exercise.

“As teachers, it is a mark of honour and respect to be identified and recommended for the examining exercise. We should, therefore, shun any attempts to put our interests before the thousands of candidates whose future we determine through the marking,” she said during the release of the 2022 KCSE results.

Knec is currently registering candidates for the 2023 national examinations. The deadline for the exercise is March 30.

Registration is free since the government took over the payment of examination fees for all candidates in primary and secondary schools five years ago.

Meanwhile, the council has also published on its website the names of past candidates who have not collected their certificates since 2001 and urged them to do so.

There are 1,920 uncollected certificates for the KCPE and 2,841 for KCSE. The certificates were returned to Knec for amendments on some of the details of the owners but they never went back for them.