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.
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).
KNEC 2023 PAYMENT RATES FOR CONTRACTED PROFESSIONALS
| Contracted Professional | Exam | Region | Pay Per Day | Total Days engaged | Total Pay |
| Centre Manager | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh500 | 4 | Sh2,000 |
| Centre Manager | KCSE | All Regions | Sh500 | 18 | Sh9,000 |
| Invigilators | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh538 | 3 | Sh1,615 |
| Invigilators | KCSE | Nairobi & Mombasa | Sh580 | 17 | Sh9,860 |
| Invigilators | KCSE | Other Regions | Sh460 | 17 | Sh7,820 |
| Supervisors | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh621 | 4 | Sh2,485 |
| Supervisors | KCSE | Nairobi & Mombasa | Sh695 | 18 | Sh12,510 |
| Supervisors | KCSE | Other Regions | Sh630 | 18 | Sh11,340 |
| Security Officers | KCSE | All Regions | Sh420 | 16 | Sh6,720 |
| Drivers | KCSE | All Regions | Sh405 | 16 | Sh6,480 |
In another change the examination officials will no longer pick all the day’s examination papers in the morning.
Instead, centre managers, who are also the school heads, will only pick the morning papers.
Knec has procured additional containers to bring examinations storage facilities to schools.
This will cut down on the time taken to pick and drop the examination papers under the new arrangement.
These are some of the new measures being rolled out one month to the national examinations.
After candidates complete the morning paper, the examination officials will return them to the container as they pick the afternoon papers.
The move is aimed at preventing early exposure to afternoon papers.
“They will no longer have so much time with question papers meant for the afternoon because they will be kept in the container and only picked minutes to the exam,” said a ministry official.
Also to be reviewed is the current practice that requires examination officials to pick question papers from containers within their sub-counties.
Officials of schools or examination centres will be required to pick question papers from the nearest container.
This is because it emerged that some schools, situated near some containers, have not been able to pick examinations from those storage facilities just because they do not fall within the sub-county.
According to the Knec 2023 examination timetable, KCPE KPSEA examination candidates will rehearse on Friday October 27.
The three-day exams will run concurrently and are scheduled to start on Monday October 30.
They will end on Wednesday November 1, paving way for the KCSE exam which will be administered from November 2-24.
Exam malpractice is giving government agencies sleepless nights, with each engaging in blame game.
Education ministry officials have blamed the police as the weakest links in examination administration.
The Director of Criminal Investigation has also been accused of doing shoddy investigations that cannot sustain prosecution.
The ODPP and Judiciary blame the investigators for not providing enough evidence to warrant prosecution.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) also points fingers at the Judiciary for protecting criminals who create and run sites that are used to abet cheating.
And CA has been faulted for not acting quick to pull down sites used to sell fake examination material.
Despite the blame games, preparations are in top gear one month to the tests.
Examination officials visited the printer to verify the preparation processes.