NAIROBI,Kenya,Mar, 28 – The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) had a total of 1,225,693 candidates sitting their 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination during a three day period that witnessed heightened security geared towards safeguarding and upholding the integrity of the process.
The government, just like it has done in recent years, rolled out a multiagency approach that saw officials from the ministry of Education, Interior and Coordination of National Government,ICT, among other state agencies take part in safeguarding the exam process.
Multi-Agency Approach & Use Of Container System During Exam Administration
According to KNEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. David Njeng’ere, credit goes to 174,910 professionals drawn from the multi-agency team in ensuring the success of the exam process.
“I take this opportunity to thank all the field officers who rendered selfless service to ensure successful administration of the KCPE examinations,” he said.
During the course of the examination period, the over one million candidates were spread across 28,316 examination centers alongside 491 distribution centers nationwide.
It is at the distribution point where the ‘real’ work is said to have begun, with Education cabinet secretary Professor George Magoha hailing the ‘container system’ terming it as effective in securing the exams and preventing previous cases of leakage.
Center managers under the supervision of the county education director and county commissioner would pick their examination materials and then be accompanied by at least two security officers to their centers.
“Kenyans have refused to accept that the container system which we picked after I went around African countries and we picked in Uganda…has been water-tight, the exam can not leak.Whoever say the exam has leaked, show us the paper a day before,” said Magoha.
Few cases of examination irregularities were reported during the exam process with Magoha saying,”it is not high stake,” compared to the KSCE Exams.
However action is expected tone taken against 320 candidates who attempted to collude in seven examination centers.
“There will be a price to pay for these candidates and the exam administrators in those seven centers will be admonished in the usual manner,” he said.
KNEC meanwhile hailed a total of 4,970 center managers for hosting candidates from 6,863 examination centers that had registered less than 30 candidates.
The examination council chairman Dr. John Onsati said that the move yielded gains in terms of the effectiveness of the exam administration and similar innovations measures will be effected in years to come.
“This practice had been enforced previously but on small scale and I wish to report that it has enhanced cost effectiveness in the process.Any isolated challenges experienced in regard or with regard to the centers being hosted will be addressed to ensure that the initiative is implemented with full success in subsequent examinations,” he said.
KCPE Marking Process
The marking process kicked off in earnest even as the exams continued and by the end of the process, Magoha revealed that marking of the multiple choice question paper had ben complete.
“In terms of marking for KCPE, we are completing the making of OMR tomorrow so the rest of the four or five days will be marking for Kiswahili Insha and English Composition,” said Magoha, a day after the exam has been completed.
The marking of marking of multiple choice questions was made easier by the acquisition of the modern Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) which electronically scores the papers.
The machines work with a dedicated scanning device that shines a beam of light on the paper.
The contrasting reflection at predetermined positions on a page is then used to detect marked areas as they reflect less light than the blank areas of the paper.
Compared to the old system that was faulted for taking too long, with the OMR,scripts are marked in batches of 100 and 200 sheets.
The OMR machines are said to have improved accuracy during marking and reduced human interaction with candidates’ results.
KNEC had engaged the services of 5,567 examiners for the marking of English Composition and kiswahili Insha scripts.
“KNEC processed the results of 2021 KCPE candidates, observing due diligence to ensure each candidate is awarded their results based on the work they presented…We only award based on the work of candidates,” said KNEC CEO Njeng’ere.
Administration of the 2021 KCSE is ongoing with the exam council saying that wit will do everything in its power to prevent ‘cartels’ from tainting the entire process.
Want to send us a story? Contact Shahidi News Tel: +254115512797 (Mobile & WhatsApp)
