The countdown to the end of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination has officially kicked off with only four years left to the death of the decades-old tests that were a hallmark of cutthroat competition.
It is now official that children under the new 2-6-3-3-3 education system will not sit national examinations at the end their primary school education.
Yesterday, President Uhuru Kenyatta rested the long-running debate on the fate of the basic national examination under 8-4-4 system, saying all primary school children will transition to secondary schools.
“We have insisted that there will be no exams in Grade Six and there will be 100 per cent transition to secondary schools,” said Uhuru.
The President also ended the controversial debate on where lower secondary school classes would be domiciled, affirming that the three classes – Grade 7, 8 and 9 – will be moved to high schools.
Sharp standpoints
“Lower secondary (Grade 7, 8, 9) will be domiciled at secondary schools,” he said. The location of the Junior Secondary School level of education had split various education stakeholders, with the rival teachers’ unions pulling apart.
Primary and secondary school heads associations also had sharp standpoints on the matter, with each of the sides keen to win the teachers’ membership to their side. “We support the decision and we will receive the pupils when they finally come to secondary schools,” said Kahi Indimuli, national chair of Secondary School Heads Association.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha had set up a task force led by Prof Fatuma Chege, Kenyatta University Deputy Vice Chancellor, to advise on the sticky issue of curriculum implementation. Magoha had said the government had decided that students will sit national examinations at the end of Grades Nine and 12 of the CBC.
“We have decided that there will be an examination after Year Nine and after Year 12,” Magoha said last month.
