Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua yesterday sent a stern warning to examination cartels as the exam season begins.

Speaking at the New Mitihani House in South C, Nairobi, while presiding over the launch of the exam season, Gachagua said stern action will be taken against anyone found culpable of leakages.

Gachagua put on notice unscrupulous officers in the education sector believed to aid examination cheating, saying they won’t be spared either.

“While we are banking on quality education to transform our country, some criminal elements have in the past infiltrated systems with the aim of leaking examinations,” Gachagua stated.

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He said the government is committed to giving learners an equal playground as they strive to advance their education and secure a better future.

“We want an equal playground for every child to score what they deserve and join their preferred secondary schools and tertiary institutions competitively,” he added.

“We urge vigilance and responsibility. Culprits will be dealt with decisively.”

At the same time, the country’s second in command urged parents and members of the public at large to support the Kenya Kwanza administration’s efforts to ensure learners undertake their examinations in a peaceful environment.

“I call upon parents and all Kenyans of goodwill to assist us in making this examination season peaceful for the candidates,” he added.

“On behalf of H.E. President William Ruto and on my own behalf, I wish all candidates a fruitful examinations season and we look forward to celebrating you once the results are declared.”

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu echoed the deputy president’s remarks, saying the government has heightened security in the North Rift counties affected by banditry activities, which disrupted exams in several schools early this year.

“We are also seized of the fact that learning activities were interrupted by several insecurity challenges, especially in the North Rift and other areas prone to cattle rustling. President William Ruto has firmly committed to take every measure to end the criminality,” Machhogu said.

“We have mooted a multi-agency short-term plan of ensuring that schools in the hotspots are not interrupted. We will go an extra mile for every child in those areas to sit their exams as planned,” he added.

He reiterated that the government is committed to dismantling examination cartels, revealing that some members of the group have been identified.

“Some members of examination cheating cartels have been identified so far and we are thankful to the security agencies for the swift action that they have taken,” he said.

While warning candidates against cheating in the exams, CS Machogu said no results will be released to anyone linked to examination malpractice.

He further invited parents and guardians to help the government curb the vice.

“Parents, guardians and communities, in general, must desist from unhealthy cultures such as contributing money to aid candidates to cheat in examinations or charging unofficial levies and other unethical practices,” he said.

Machogu’s remarks come barely two weeks after three Egerton University students were arrested for selling fake examination papers.

Kelvin Anunda Mogaka, Francis Manyara Ogata and Brevin Osano Ombongi, were late October charged before a Nairobi court with defrauding members of the public of millions of shillings through social media in the pretence they were offering Kenya National Examinations papers leakages.

The government is set to administer three national examinations at ago to 3,416,048 candidates later this month.

Of these, 1,287,597 will sit the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) at Grade 6, while 1,244,188 will be sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), and 884,263 will be sitting the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will contract over 250,000 tutors to invigilate this year’s national examinations set for November and December. The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will for the first time ever administer three national exams—Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) to over 3 million learners, the largest number ever. “A record number of teachers, more than 250,000, are being lined up for Kenya’s most challenging examination season set to start on November 25.

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Aware of the challenges likely to be faced in the management of three examinations at the end of the year, TSC sent an early directive to field officers to identify and vet teachers of integrity for the exercise, the most extensive since independence,” said TSC, in its quarterly publication dubbed Teachers’ Image.

Some 1.2 million candidates will sit their KCPE, about 1.3 million for KPSEA and another 800,000 will sit their KCSE. Sub county directors were expected to have nominated and vetted national examination officials by last week.

TSC Secretary, Nancy Macharia urged the directors to identify centre managers, supervisors and invigilators who will be engaged in administration of the national exams and deploy them into the system. “In preparation for the administration of the examination and assessment, KNECC would wish to have the details of the center managers, supervisors and invigilators who will be engaged in the activity,” said Macharia in a circular last month.

Macharia said that for every 200 candidates, the directors are to deploy one supervisor. TSC said that no supervisor should be deployed for hosted and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) except for centres with KPSEA candidates only.

Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has fresh regulations which must be followed during administration of the 3 national examinations slated for next month.

The penalties spelt in the protocols target both candidates and examination administrators who will be found culpable.

These details emerged following a meeting between KNEC officials and  all chief examiners of Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), Kenya Certificate for Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE).

According to Knec chief executive officer, Dr David Njengere 2022 has been a unique academic year.

‘‘In a normal school calendar year, Knec administers two examinations; however, this year, we will administer a total of five examinations,’’ Njengere said.

Among the new guidelines are:

1. candidates will not be allowed any extra time while sitting KCPE and KCSEtests.
2. Unnecessary movements by candidates when the examinations are underway has been prohibited unless with special permission from supervisors.
3. No form of communication between candidates and strangers within or outside the school compound will be allowed.
4. within the examination rooms, candidates are cautioned from exposing their question answers to fellow students.
5. Candidates are advised not to leave a sheet of paper they have written on or their answers in such a position that another candidate can read them.
6. You should not give or obtain unfair assistance, or attempt to do so, whether by copying or in any other way, and your work should not show proof of such unfair assistance
7. You are not allowed to have in your possession or in your proximity while in the examination room, any book, notes, papers or any other materials whatsoever except the correct question papers and any materials expressly authorised by the Knec
8. It is punishable to have access to examination material and revealing the contents, whether orally or in writing, to an unauthorised party. This will attract a penalty or a fine not exceeding Sh2 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or both
9. it will also be an offence for any person to maliciously damage examination material.
10. No impersonation will allowed. In the event the impostor is a student, they will be prohibited from taking an examination conducted by or on behalf of Knec for three years. The culprit will be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding two million shillings or both.
11. Candidates, supervisors, invigilators or headteachers will not enter an examination room with phones or other electronic devices.
12. primary schools with a combined candidature of thirty (30) and above for both KCPE and KPSEA examinations will be allowed to conduct the examination on their premises.
13. schools with less than thirty (30) candidates and more than five(5) kilometres away from the nearest examination centre will seek special approval from Knec through the Sub County Director of Education
14. The ratio of one invigilator for every 20 students, and one supervisor for every 200 candidates is adhered to.

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The assessment of the pioneer class of learners under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), is facing headwinds with the national examiner opting to change the format and structure of the examinations.
Learners who will in December sit the national assessment to be known as Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), will now use multiple choices instead of the original idea of structured questions.
Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) is said to have taken the decision due to lack of finances and logistics involved in the assessment process, particularly marking of the examinations.
Knec is also said to be mulling whether to remove English composition and Kiswahili Insha from Grade 6 final national assessment.
Sources within Knec revealed that use of structured questions would require massive resources, both financial and manpower in marking, unlike multiple choices that are handled by computers.

Besides the huge number of teachers who would be required for marking, the process would also have taken a longer period before the candidates get the results.
Currently, all subjects, save for English composition and Kiswahili insha, are marked by computers.
Teachers and educationists have now raised eyebrows over the change of the format, which they say has watered down the main objective of CBC , which was to test the learners’ ability in thinking, analytical skills creativity and problem solving.
Contacted, Knec Chief Eexecutive Officer David Njeng’ere declined to comment.
“I am currently out of the country on official duty, allow me to give you a comprehensive response when I return next week,” Njeng’ere said.
Dr Evelyn Jepkemei, an expert in education policy blames the apparent confusion over KPSEA on lack of adequate preparations.
“Knec does not have enough resources to mark open-ended examinations. The form of assessment that they are now resorting to is different altogether and assesses different abilities from structuredquestions,” Jepkemei says.
Another educationist, Alex Majani- a retired Deputy Director of Education says the abrupt change of the format by Knec is a clear indication that the government is not fully ready for the change of education system.

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“The compositeness of such assessment needed investment in human resources, but we did not. It is also sad to note that teachers have been left to spectate on issues they needed to prosecute and give guidance on,” Majani observes.
A recent report by the Budget and Appropriations Committee tabled before the National Assembly, blamed poor funding and heavy workload for the slow implementation of CBC. The report decried the low allocation for the estimated 1.6 million Grade Six learners who will transition to Junior Secondary School (JSS) under the 2022/23 budget.
Revelations about change of the format comes only a day after President Uhuru Kenyatta defended the implementation of CBC as a transformative system of education during his 10-year reign in leadership.
Speaking during Makadara Day celebrations on Wednesday, the President said the roll-out of the curriculum that took place in 2017 has seen significant milestones in the education docket, contrary to the previous systems.
The pioneer CBC cohort is scheduled to sit for the final assessment between November 28 and November 30.
The candidates will be tackling two papers in a day starting 8.30am. The second paper will be starting at 11am. There will be no examinations in the afternoon, according to Knec’s schedule.
On the first day, students will sit for Mathematics and Mathematics (Large Print) tests, which will take one hour and 20 minutes, while Mathematics (Braille)
will take one hour and 50 minutes.
English and English (Large Print), will take one hour while English (Hearing Impaired), and English (Braille) will last 20 minutes more.
Integrated Science tests will take one hour and 40 minutes. Integrated Science (Large Print) and Integrated Science (Braille) exams will take two hours and 10 minutes.
The learners will tackle Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language tests after the break. The exams will last for 1 hour. Kiswahili (Braille) will take one hour and 20 minutes. The last day will see students sit for the Creative Arts & Social Studies examinations that will take one hour 40 minutes

The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) for Grade Six, which is the final test that grade six learners will sit in November this year, will be purely a multiple-choice test.

The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) samples for KPSEA released by KNEC and seen by our team earlier this month had multiple choices.

KPSEA is expected to replace the soon ending Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) though the two have so much commonalities.

Unlike KCPE however, the Grade 6 KPSEA exam will be marked out of 40 percent rather than one hundred per cent.

The remaining 60% in KPSEA will be fetched from the  School Based Assessment (SBA) tests in Grade 3, 4 and 5.

The Kenya Early Year Assessment (KEYA), which had been done in grade three, will contribute 20 percent, Grade 4 another 20 percent and lastly Grade 5 another 20 percent, giving a total of 60 percent.

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Placement of learners in Grade 7 will be informed by how they perform in their final Grade 6 exams as well as in the already done school-based assessments.

The pioneer Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) learners will sit for their final test in primary schools from 28th to 30th November 2022 before transiting to junior secondary in January next year.

Knec has released a timetable for the exams, showing that they will last three days.25th November 2022 has been reserved for rehearsals.

The Grade 6 regular learners will sit for five subjects in their final assessment in primary school: Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Integrated Science and Creative Art and Social Studies.

Public and private primary schools across the country will making the secondary school choices for their 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates today.

This follows the suspension of high school selection by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), to facilitate faster registration of the KCPE candidates.

Initially, many schools had complained over inefficient and slow Knec servers which made the entire registration process difficult.

Knec However confirmed that the process will start today 16th May, implying that KCPE 2022 candidates can now start to select secondary schools they would like to join in 2023.

According to Knec, the registration of KCPE, KPSEA and KCSE candidates ended on 14th May 2022 after schools entered the learners’ bio data.

The placement of Grade 6 learners to junior secondary is still marred with confusion.

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School choices for the candidates is not yet set despite CS Magoha saying the learners will be placed in day and boarding junior secondary schools across the country.

The learners will be tested in five subjects including Mathematics, English,Kiswahili,Integrated Sciences and Creative and Social Sciences.

The pioneer Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) learners will sit for their final test in primary schools from 28th to 30th November 2022 before transiting to junior secondary in January.