To: All Head teachers
RE: CONDUCT OF LEARNING ASSESSMENTS UNDER THE KENYA GPE COVID-19 LEARNING CONTINUITY IN BASIC EDUCATION PROJECT
Subsequent to the closure of all learning institutions on March 15, 2020 1 mitigate the spread of COVID-19 whose first case in Kenya was reported on 3rd March, 2020, the Ministry of Education (MoE) developed the Kenya Basic Education COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan, 2020, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on learning.
To support the government’s efforts in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the basic education sector, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) allocated the Government of Kenya (Go) a grant from the GPE COVID-19 accelerated funding window.
The grant is designed to capacitate Kenya, as well as other governments benefiting from it, to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on their education systems and help recovery.
One of the key areas identified for support in Kenya is learning assessment.
The Project (GPE) is supporting KNEC, through the National Assessment Centre, to conduct school-based learning assessments in all primary schools (Grade 1 to Standard 8).
The overarching aim of the assessments is to inform on possible learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic period and suggest interventions to be put in place to address the learning gaps.
The learning assessments seek to achieve the following strategic objectives:
i. Provide baseline on which interventions towards improved learning outcomes during the post COVID-19 pandemic period can be hinged;
ii. Identify strengths and weaknesses in learner acquisition of specific subject content and skills with a view to providing focused interventions;
iii. Provide reliable and valid data to inform policy-making processes;
iv. Provide teachers with standardized assessment tools from which to benchmark as they develop future assessments; and
v. Enhance teachers’ capacity in developing valid, reliable and efficient learning assessments at school level.
It is hoped that the assessments will act as end of Term 1, 2020, assessments/ tests in the targeted subjects/learning areas as, by the closure of learning institutions, majority of schools may not have conducted the end of term assessments.
The scope of the assessment will be as follows:
i. Standard 7 and 8 will be assessed in all the KCPE subjects.
ii. Standard 5 and 6 will be assessed in English, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Science.
iii. Grade 4 will be assessed in Englih, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Environmental Activities and Science and Technology (Note that this will be a combined paper, paper assessing all strands from Environmental Activities – Grade 1 to 3, and Science and Technology Grade 4 Term 1)
iii. Grades 1 to 3 will be assessed in Fundamental Literacy and Numeracy
(English Activities, Kiswahili Activities and Mathematics Activities).
iv. For all subjects / learning areas, assessment items will be drawn from previous classes/grades and Term 1 of the current class/grade.
For instance, Class 8 will be assessed from Class 1 to 7, and Term 1 of Class 8
The administration of the assessments will be greatly informed by the Monitoring Learner Progress (MLP) assessment administered at Grade 3 in 2019.
The assessments will be administered at school level as per the guidelines and assessment schedules provided by KNEC, and following regulations upon which administration of assessments/tets is anchored.
Teachers will score and upload the scores onto the KNEC portal using guidelines provided by KNEC.
The guidelines are contained in the administrative documents which will be uploaded onto the assessment portal alongside the assessment tools.
Class 8 and Grade 4 assessments will be administered from 19th to 23rd October, 2020.
Assessments for other classes will be conducted upon reopening of specific classes.
The purpose of this communication, therefore, is to inform you cf the assessments and request that your school makes appropriate preparations for the assessments.
Please note that the reliability and integrity of the outcome of these assessments rests upon the Headteachers and teachers.
You are, therefore, called upon to ensure that learners are provided with a natural environment in order to guard against extraneous variables that could affect their performance.
Dr. Mercy Karogo, MBS
Ag. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Hio ni ujinga sana aren’t you seeing the rise of covid 19 cases? This cabinet secretary wa education is a don’t care who the hell do you think you are
Nakubaliana na wewe what I suggest is that magoha must go!
Congrats Magoha that’s what we call exercising your authority and doing what the least is expected from the majority.The future of kenya is at stake if we continue with this kind of nonsensical and useless court orders.if they can’t get the big fish in corruption what’s all this nonsense of contemp.magoha stamp your authority no corona
Teachers Arena is such a wonderful App . Keep it up!!
wow! thanks for the compliment and for letting us know
Are you really serious ,do you have kids if I may ask?
It’s await and see situation but the reality is that Corona cases are increasing and calls for high level of caution as we do our things both as a government and the entire people of Kenya.
Magoha this is not good for our children
I wonder what magoha will say and do when the second wave hits kenya.
The idea of conducting assessments after reopening is quite welcome.
University zifunguliwe ….. From first year????
Still unpreparedness detected__ the situation in schools is wanting
Personally am impressed with everything that is being planned and I hope all goes well,,, but I think you should give us a clue on when we will be opening the school (the rest of us)kwa sababu tuko kwa Giza,,, kindly mtuambie uwezekano wa sisi wengine kufungua shule,,,, please
While welcoming the idea still have worries. May the Almighty God lead us to achieve as He wished.
Am impressed with the idea of conducting assessment, it will show the direction forward, with or without corona we have to move on otherwise all other countries are back to their learning.
Good for our children keep it up cs
As a student I was already prepared for January 2021 but everything seems to be changed now and the and it’s annoying!
It’s unfair to blame Prof.Magoha for the reopening of schools. It is a government policy. All countries in Eastern Africa have opened schools. When bars were opened Kenyans celebrated (some people died during celebration).Now when schools are opened some drunkards are shouting. We can’t throw our country to the dogs.
I’m happy to hear about opening of School’s despite the fact that we anable to take care even our own children, see how many are pregnant now while others are young parents. hongera Prof magoha
its a good ideal but private schools headteachers should understand parent more than ever.
Let’s pray and hope for the best. Life has to continue despite everything, though caution needs to be upheld at all levels.