Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has announced that the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) certificates are ready for collection.

In a notice on Saturday, February 23, 2024, KNEC also directed all students who sat for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) to pick their result slips from their respective schools.

“The 2022 KCPE certificates and 2023 KCSE result slips have been sent to all schools that presented candidates for the examinations. Candidates and parents or guardians are therefore encouraged to visit their schools and collect the documents,” the notice read.

Notably, an earlier directive from KNEC noted that institutions and candidates had 30 days to raise any grievances upon the issuance of the certificates.

“Queries about examination results/certificates must be made through the Heads of Schools and the Sub County Directors of Education. The appeal documents must reach KNEC not later than 30 days after the release of the examination results/certificates, after which the query shall attract a penalty,” KNEC stated.

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A total of 1.2 million students took the 2022 KCPE exams, with all qualifying for admission to Form One in line with the government’s 100 per cent transition policy.

The national examiner has explained why a supplementary exam could not be immediately administered to the 2,000 students who failed to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam last year. Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) chief executive David Njengere said the supplementary exam was called off because the number of candidates was too low to justify a special test. He said KCPE is a norm-referenced exam, which means comparing one child to another to get a normal curve and subsequently place them in secondary schools. He said KCPE helps in placement of learners in various categories of schools namely national, extra-county, county or sub-county and that is why it is standardized.

“If you want to conduct a norm-referenced exam, you have to apply a lot of statistical information to compare one child to the other. If you fall below a certain threshold in terms of numbers, then you will not be able to conduct a normal normreferenced exam because how do you compare only 2,000 candidates and how will you standardise? The population is too small to do a normal norm referenced exam. At least when we had 9,000 the number was a bit big,” the CEO explained.

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He said the cost aspect was also put into consideration, saying already, KNEC had incurred full cost of printing the exam for the 9,000 but they did not show up. “So why would we start incurring another cost for 2,000 learners and we are not even sure that they will show up? That is why we said there is another avenue for them to be placed in Form One. The qualifying exam requirement is that you just sit for it any time before you register for KCSE,” he explained. So far, the 2,000 candidates who did not to sit last year’s KCPE are yet to make a request to sit the qualifying exam.

Njengere, however said the students still have three years to sit the qualifying exam before they can sit their KCSE in 2027. “To get that data, we had to ask the schools that had registered where the children are and they could only account for 2,000. KNEC was trying to reach out because this was the last KCPE but so far none has reached out,” he said. “They have three years to make sure they do a qualifying exam, the way we administer there is no problem with numbers because it is not a high stake exam. In fact, we are always administering it,” added Njengere.

When Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu released the 2023 KCPE examination last November, he said that KNEC would administer a supplementary examination for 9,000 candidates who failed to sit the exam.

But upon a further audit of the number of candidates who actually failed to sit the exams, the council was only able to trace 2,000 eligible learners. “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 and be allowed to sit qualifying examinations later,” the CS explained.

They will, however, be advised to ensure they sit their individual qualifying exam by the time they are in Form Three to enable them be registered to sit the KCSE at Form Four. Njengere said that KCPE and KCSE are distinct exams with a different approach and outcome. The chief executive said KCSE is criterion referenced because its purpose is to help in showing a student’s strength and weaknesses and which careers they can pursue at the tertiary level. Njengere has said that registration for this year’s Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and KCSE registration will start on January 29 and end on March 29, a two months’ period. He said the period 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. “There will be no late registration. There will be no room to change photographs after the registration portal is closed,” the CEO stated.

Similarly, Njengere noted that centre Managers will be held responsible for ‘ghost’ candidates and will be expected to account for all absent candidates. Parents and guardians have also been urged to have all the documents necessary for this process beforehand.

Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has cautioned candidates sitting for their KCSE examinations to be cautious of fake exam papers being circulated on various social media platforms.
KNEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr David Njengere has confirmed that the examination papers being circulated on social media platforms are not genuine and are only meant to deceive those sitting for KCSE.
He said the new guidelines that were put in place are working well, saying this year KNEC is determined to conduct credible results. “Students have studied for the last four years, so I urge them to ignore those papers being circulated in various social media channels.

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The papers are fake. “The new directive of picking exam papers from containers twice a day is working very smoothly and is helping to prevent early exposure of examination papers. Those monitoring the exams are also doing a great job,” said Njengere when he oversaw the distribution of examination papers from a container in Murang’a East Sub County, Monday.
He revealed that so far, 46 cases of malpractice have been reported in the country, saying the number has no significance to taint the integrity of the exam.
“46 students from various parts of the country have been caught as they attempted to interfere with the exams. Some of the cases include having phones in examination centres or any other unauthorised materials. We thank officers and teachers manning the exams as they have quelled any attempt to leak the exams,” added the CEO.

The government will spend Sh500 million to hire helicopters to transport examination papers to flood prone areas.

A document tabled before MPs from the Ministry of Education shows Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) requires a total of 15 helicopters to be able to transport the said examinations.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Kenya Meteorological Department predicted the El Nino related trends in various parts of the country could have an impact on field administration of examinations.

Reads the document: “Knec is engaging in a multi-agency coordinating team under the leadership of the office of Deputy President and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to assist in provision of the helicopters and other needs as they may arise.”

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Knec clustered the areas to be affected in to six categories including those that are flood hotspots, those that have heavy continuous rainfall, those that have flash floods, those affected by landslides, and those that have continuous rainfall above the long term average as well as those that will get occasional rainfall above the long term energy.

The areas that are flooding hotspots include Nyakach, Nyando, Lower areas of River Nzoia, Lower areas of River Sondu, Narok town, SuswNar, Tana River Delta and Mwatate while those that will experience flash floods include Lodwar, Lokichar, Nairobi, Naivasha, Nakuru and Mombasa.

Those that will experience heavy continuous rainfall include Lake Victoria Basin region, Kisii, Elgeyo Marakwet, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, West Pokot, Vihiga, Laikipia , Nakuru and Narok Counties, those that will have landslides include West Pokot, Kericho, Elgeyo Marakwet, Mt Elgon, Narok, Nakuru, Baringo, Murang’a, Kitui and Kilungu in Makueni County.

The regions that will have continuous rainfall above the long term average include Rift Valley, Nairobi, Wajir and Mandera counties while those that will have occasional rainfall above the long term average include Turkana, Marsabit and Samburu.

The move came on the day Machogu assured MPs that adequate preparations have been put in place to achieve a credible examination process.

In a comprehensive brief to MPs delivered by Education Chairperson and Tinderet MP Julius Melly on the status of examination preparedness including registration of candidates, distribution of examination materials, storage of exams and marking of exams, Machogu said that regular reviews have been done to ensure that all the necessary pre-requisite measures are in place so as to guarantee effective conduct of the 2023 exams.

Said Machogu: “Necessary safeguards have been put in place to guarantee the efficiency and integrity of the examination and assessment process.”

He however asked the lawmakers to approve an additional Sh3.8 billion that the ministry had requested in the supplementary Estimates 1 Budget for the financial year 2023/24.

The money, he said, will be used to cater for the 2023/24 financial year pending bills that will be settled as first charge to enable teachers to be paid promptly and on time.

Further he said that the said funds will also be used to meet Knec’s projected deficit in the 2023/2024 financial budget required to meet the cost of rising, cost of administering examinations due to the increased candidature, the increased cost of fuel due to the double collection of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, increased fuel prices at the pump and review of rates of contracted professionals.

He said: “In this regard, the ministry requests the support of the house in securing the requisite budget, to ensure that the administration of national examinations is adequately funded.”

With regards to the dispatch of examination materials, Machogu told MPs that the distribution of the 2023 Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) materials was concluded on October 15 which also included the dispatch for the orals and oral materials for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

On the number of officers who will be involved in the manning of examinations, Machogu said that Knec will involve about 374,579 field personnel.

Of the 374,579 field officers, 181,127 wil oversee KCPE exams, 99,525 will oversee KCSE, while 93877 will oversee KPSEA.
Those who will be hired include 30,848 supervisors, 192, 375 invigilators, 71, 760 centre managers, 294, 983 teachers, 57,931 security officers, 7,029 drivers, 2304 sub county directors of education and assistant county commissioners, 4608 security officers to man containers, 94 county police commanders and 1,728 clerks.

The Kenya National Examination Council has sent a strong warning to KCSE Centre managers from sharing confidential information relating to practicals of science subjects.

Knec on Monday warned the centre managers from sharing confidential information relating to the practicals to unauthorised persons.

“We strongly caution KCSE Centre Managers against sharing confidential instructions for preparation of science practical exam papers with unauthorized persons. Please adhere to KNEC rules and regulations,” the national examiners said on its social media pages.

Knec said centre managers who fail to comply and end up sharing confidential information about the science practicals will attract sanctions spelt out in the KNEC Act.

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On Thursday last week, as KCSE candidates were doing their rehearsals, KNEC held a briefing with 634 assessors for the 2023 KCSE oral and practical papers.

The briefing was held at the KNEC head office at New Mitihani House, Nairobi.

“634 assessors were briefed and are now ready to lead the oral and practical examination that will be done from October 23 to 27,” the national examiner said.

This comes as candidates began their KCSE practicals on Monday. 903,260 candidates registered for this year’s KCSE.

The candidates shall sit their practical papers the entire week till Friday, October 27.

The practical exams include orals for French, German,  Arabic, Kenya Sign Language and music.

Home Science students will do their practicals between October 30 and 31.

From November 1, candidates will sit for several exams in the morning, including French (Listening Comprehension, dictation, and Creative Writing), Braille, German,  Arabic, Arabic, Large print, Kenyan Sign Language (Receptive Skills), and Music.

KCSE exams which started on Monday will end on November 24 with Physics practicals.

Following the announcement of the 2022 KCSE exams earlier this year, allegations of exam malpractice were rife.

The National Assembly Education Committee then moved to probe the allegations on January 27 this year

The committee found that exam malpractices in the 2022 KSCE included collusion to share answers, use of mobile phones in exam rooms, impersonation, smuggling of unauthorised written material, leakage, and plagiarism among other techniques.

Currently, Knec is working to ensure there will be no cases of malpractice in the 2023 national exams.

The Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has officially added deputy heads of institutions to list of contracted professionals.

Previously deputy headteachers and principals were used in schools during national examination periods but were not recognized by Knec.

This means they were not entitled for payment of stipend by Knec for helping in preparation for the exams and managing learners.

However in new changes, the deputy HOI’s will now help their school heads during the national examination period.

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This according to Knec will help to curb cheating. Knec has also introduced a number of other changes which will affect the national exams and assessments planned to start in October.

Last week Knec issued a new statement blocking contracted professionals, examiners and assessors from engaging in activities that might compromise their office.

“While preparing candidates for examinations, peer learning and enhancing pedagogical skills are good practices, the Council wishes to observe that the Oath of Secrecy which every contracted professionals, examiners and assessors signs prohibits among other things, engaging in activities deemed to pose conflict of interest and divulging ones identity as a KNEC examiner/assessor, “said Knec.

The Council ordered all contracted professionals, examiners and assessors to desist from facilitating in such workshops.

Knec will administer national examinations to 2.3 million learners who will sit this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.

Around 1,415,315 candidates will sit for KCPE exam, while another 903,260 will take the KCSE test.

Kenya National Examination Council Chief Executive David Njengere said preparations have been made for the candidates including 1,282,574 Grade Six learners who will sit for Kenya Primary School Education Assessment(KPSEA).

The Ministry of Education has finalised its mission to change the KCSE grading system.

According to Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang, the new system will not work as was the case with the 8-4-4 system where students were graded across subject clusters.

He maintained that the new grading system will grade learners in general and include the best five subjects the student undertook.

Kipsang said the move aims to focus more on the interests and competence of learners.

“A student with the ability and interest in medicine or engineering need not be prevented from qualifying for the courses just because a subject that was used to grade him pulled down his overall mean grade,” he said.

The PS was speaking in Mombasa during a briefing on the status of the implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).

He said grading national education system should be for certification and not for placement of students in higher learning institutions.

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“The integration of certification and placement in the KCSE grading structure has disadvantaged many students with different orientations in abilities and interests,” Kipsang said.

He said literacy and numeracy abilities will be the key focus in grading future exams.

However, students who are still under the 8-4-4 system will be graded according to their performance in five subjects in addition to their grades in Mathematics and either English or Kiswahili.

According to the working party, the 8-4-4 system focused largely on academics and rote learning, denying learners opportunities to develop critical skills and values necessary for character formation.

They said the grading system for KCSE exam considers seven subjects. They include English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, two science subjects and two others.

They said the subjects disadvantage some learners whose best performing subject is not considered if not within the cluster.

English and Kiswahili measure the literacy level of a learner, while Mathematics and any science subject evaluate the numeracy aspects of the learner.

Therefore, PWPER proposed the computation of KCSE examination mean score by Knec be based on Mathematics, English or Kiswahili and five other best-performed subjects.

The Kenya national examinations council, KNEC, has cautioned examiners against engaging in motivational talks and workshops.

In a circular, KNEC/CONF/EA/FAS/EXM/023/022, written and signed by KNEC CEO on David Njengere on 13TH September,2023, the examiners and assessors are reminded that a majority of them have continuously been called upon by various organizations or institutions to facilitate in workshops or to give motivational talks aimed at preparing candidates for national examinations, yet they did an oath of secrecy.

“While preparing candidates for examinations, peer learning and enhancing pedagogical skills are good practices, the Council wishes to observe that the Oath of Secrecy which every contracted professional, examiner or assessor signs prohibits among other things, engaging in activities deemed to pose conflict of interest, and divulging one’s identity as a KNEC examiner/assessor,” reads the letter in part.

The letter further demands that all contracted professionals, examiners or assessors to desist from facilitating such workshops.

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The National Assembly Committee on Education has urged the Kenya national examination council to formulate a better policy on how exams are administered to students admitted to hospitals due to sickness or pregnancy.

The Committee chairperson, Julius Melly has revealed that the Committee is proposing the introduction of supplementary exams as a remedy for hospitalised students in future after this year’s exams.

“Imagine a student is giving birth at six in the morning, then you want her to sit for an exam at eight, is it possible? She is mentally and physically not ready.

We have told them (Knec) that it is wrong; actually, it is unfair, unkind and inhuman to give an exam to a sick person who has undergone surgery or is under medication,” he stated. On their part, Knec said they require Sh350 million to complete its new headquarters which has been under construction for the last 36 years. Once the funds are available, Knec told the committee that it would complete the new Mitihani House in one year.

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The MPs said it is only Wing C of the three-winged six-storey building which is complete and currently in use while Wing B has two more incomplete floors. Despite Parliament allocating money every financial year to the project, the committee learnt that the council has been diverting the money to pay pending bills.

The funds, Knec said, will be used to build the remaining sections of Wing A. “We had a tour of the building; we saw that Wing C is currently in use from the basement to the top floor which is now housing all the offices that were in town. On Wing B, they are now on the fourth floor while for Wing A, they are now requesting for funds,” Melly said. He added: “We have put pressure on them to make sure they do not incur a lot of pending bills.

They have assured the committee that they need Sh350 million to complete the whole structure.” Melly said they have urged Knec to link up with Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutes so that they get government expertise to speed up the project. However, printing of business and technical subject exams is also being done in the building, with Knec exuding confidence that they will soon start printing all exam papers locally.

“They have modern printing machines worth Sh100 million and the building is very secure. There has been no leakage of exams being printed here. As a committee will are happy that our demand to have exams printed locally is being actualised,” the Tinderet MP added.

Examination body Committee also waded into the issue of schools withholding certificates, and pushed the examination body and Ministry of Education to issue a circular to learning institutions to release them. “KCSE certificates belong to the government and Knec is the custodian. They don’t belong to the schools.

They should be released to the students, immediately after they reach the school. We have agreed they issue a circular to all principals, that no certificate should be withheld in any school,” he explained. Similarly, the committee called on Knec to resume printing certificates that are reported to have been lost or destroyed to end the agony of candidates applying for jobs.

Before 2016, Melly said, Knec used to reproduce lost certificates but there was a challenge of corruption, prompting the government to stop the reprinting. Instead, the government introduced a letter of certification, to be produced to authorities demanding the lost certificate. “Certificates can get burnt or lost as the students are travelling.

Even if a school leaver is issued with a letter of certification, it may not be admissible to some government authorities when seeking an opportunity. We have agreed with Knec, let’s go back to the reprinting and indicate on the top of the certificate that it is a reprint,” he said.

As this year’s candidates prepare to write their national exams in about two months’ time, National Assembly Committee on Education has demanded that the National Treasury releases money meant to pay examiners to Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) in advance to enable the council pay them promptly.

Committee, chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, said the move will allow the council to pay the examiners in time to avoid delays that are occasionally witnessed every exam cycle. Melly was speaking yesterday when the committee visited the new Knec offices in South C. The MP criticised the National Treasury for the delay in releasing money meant to pay examiners.

“We are now demanding that the National Treasury allocates resources in time so that the examiners are paid in time immediately after they are done with their work. We have made it very clear to the council, do not ever do this again without the money. We are also telling the Treasury, do not ever have the examiners engaged without money being released to Knec,” Melly stated. Chairman added that in the coming supplementary budget, they are going to ensure examiners are given priority so that they get paid in under two months after they clear the marking.

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“The examiners have done their duty and it is against the Public Finance Management Act for the government to procure the services of examiners, without having resources. The Act is very clear, you don’t procure if you don’t have the money,” he added. The committee further urged the national examination body to formulate a better policy on how exams are administered to students admitted to hospitals due to sickness or pregnancy.

Melly revealed that the Committee is proposing the introduction of supplementary exams as a remedy for hospitalised students in future after this year’s exams.