The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) examinations ended smoothly on Wednesday in Nakuru County without any major hitches reported.
Speaking when he oversaw the opening and distribution of KCPE and KPSEA examination papers at the Nakuru-East Deputy County Commissioner’s offices Principal Secretary (PS) in the State Department of Environment and Climate Change Festus Ng’eno further assured Kenyans that no candidate eligible for KCPE examinations had been left out.
He indicated that a multidisciplinary team consisting of Ministry of Education, Ministry of Information & Communication Technology, and Ministry of Interior officials had undertaken in-depth measures to ensure that no child missed the examinations due to failure of being registered, natural calamities, and insecurity in various parts of the country.
“Since this was the last KCPE exam, the government worked round the clock to ensure that no learner had been disadvantaged by exclusion from the examination, on account of non-registration or other factors,” the Principal Secretary explained.
In the past, several Standard Eight and Form Four candidates have been denied the chance to write examinations after school managers failed to register them for the tests.
Eng. Ng’eno who was accompanied by County Commissioner Loyford Kibaara told a media briefing that the distribution of the exams in all the eleven Sub-Counties was successful without any irregularities being reported.
The Principal Secretary hailed examination center managers for following the guidelines provided by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) in executing the administration of the examinations effectively.
After nearly four decades, the curtains have finally fallen on the KCPE examination. Some 1,415,315 students wrote the national examinations, marking an end to the cutthroat competition for stellar grades that has characterized the country’s education system since 1985 when the first batch of candidates were examined.
The examinations were for the second year administered simultaneously with the new KPSEA.
KPSEA is the new primary exit examination under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and is administered in Grade 6. And this year, some 1,282,574 candidates sat KPSEA
Engineer Ng’eno noted that in areas with difficult terrain, floods, and related challenges such as Wajir and Marsabit the exams were airlifted from Nairobi directly due to security concerns.
He added: “The Government would like to assure the nation that adequate preparations were undertaken to ensure and achieve a credible examination process. Necessary safeguards were put in place to guarantee the efficiency and integrity of the examination and assessment process.”
Countrywide, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) used 576 distribution containers for KCPE and KPSEA while 567 others will be used for KCSE, which is an additional 82 compared to last year.
Engineer Ng’eno said that 0verall, a total of 24,906,837 candidates which translates to 70 percent of Kenya’s population have sat KCPE in the 38 years it has been conducted.
At least 360,000 candidates sat the KCPE examination for the first time in 1985, ushering in the 8-4-4 system.
Before 8-4-4, there was the 7-4-2-3 curriculum consisting of seven years of primary education, four years of secondary education, two years of high school, and 3 years of university education. And starting next year, KPSEA will be the sole examination.
The new testing format aims to create a less burdensome and more student-friendly way of assessing learners, relieving the pressure of chasing top scores. KPSEA, designed for Grade 6 students under the new Competency-Based Curriculum framework, is now in its second year.
Its purpose, according to recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, is not for placement but for monitoring learners’ progress and providing feedback to stakeholders.
Moving from primary to junior school will be automatic regardless of the score the candidate gets in the KPSEA.
This approach aims to support the development and growth of young learners without the pressure of achieving top scores.
However, worth noting is that KPSEA will influence a student’s path to senior secondary school. According to recommendations by the Presidential Working Party, 20 percent of KPSEA will be used to determine the candidates’ final score at the end of junior school.
This will be graded alongside 20 percent of class-based assessments in Grades 7 and 8 and 60 percent of an assessment similar to KPSEA in Grade 9.
Structurally, KPSEA closely resembles the KCPE examination, with some notable differences.
Candidates now answer 30 questions instead of the previous 50, and they still face multiple-choice questions, testing their ability to identify the correct answers.
The examination is divided into several days, with mathematics and English being tackled on the first day.
Integrated Science (Science and Technology, Agriculture, Home Science, and Physical and Health Education) and Kiswahili on the second day. The third and final day assesses candidates in Arts and Craft, Music, and Religious Education in the Creative Art and Social Studies subject.
While KCPE will account for the final score in primary school, under KPSEA, the score will be a combination of class-based assessment and the final KPSEA score.
