The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has issued a warning to public and private primary schools against uploading fabricated scores on its portal.
Knec says it will take appropriate action against schools and teachers found interfering with its national exercise.
This comes after a section of parents raised complaints that some primary schools are not uploading genuine marks scored by their children.
The parents are accusing schools of falsifying learners scores in Grade 3, 4, 5 and now 6. However this has not yet proved and are currently just mere allegations.
The parents further say schools are taking advantage of the School Based Assessments (SBA) to mint money.
They accuse school heads of demanding huge sums of money and resources from them for projects and practicals against Ministry of Education directives.
Knec has in several occasions asked schools to use locally available resources to implement the project and practical works.
Some schools are said to collect upto a tune of one thousand shilling per learner for purposes of conducting the project work and exams.
The Grade 6 learners are currently sitting for their national written assessment tests which end on 9th September.
Knec has given schools till 16th September to upload the learners scores on its portal. The examiner says it is monitoring its servers to ensure the uploading exercise is successful and on time.
The scores will be added to the ones they did in Grade 4 and 5 and KPSEA exams to be done in November to determine the placement of learners in junior secondary next year.
The Grade 6 learners have already done their projects and practicals which are also part of the national assessment.
For Grade 6 the practical activity in Art and Craft was about Making a marrionete. In Homescience it was about Stewing.
In Music it was about Performing a folk song. In Science and Technology it was about Modeling a circulatory system.
And finally in PE it was about Front crawl in Swimming, Rope skipping and two handed catch in Handball.
Schools are required to upload the project and practical work on the Knec portal by 16th September.
Knec CEO David Njengere in a circular has asked schools to keep record of the project work and learners portfolio as evidence.
Njengere has also ordered Knec officials, supported by TSC and Ministry of Education to move around schools to check on implementation of the Competency Based Assessment (CBA).
For this summative assessment just like it will be in November, Knec is assessing the thirteen subjects offered at Upper Primary level using five papers of multiple choice questions constituted as follows:
1. Mathematics;
2. English Language;
3. Kiswahili/Kenyan Sign Language;
4. Integrated Science (combines 4 subjects):
i) Science and Technology;
ii) Agriculture;
iii) Home Science;
iv) Physical and Health Education.
5. Creative Arts and Social Studies (combines 4 subjects):
i)Social Studies;
ii) Christian Religious Education/Islamic Religious Education/Hindu Religious Education;
iii) Art and Craft;
iv) Music.
The learners will sit for their final exam in primary in November this year. The exam is known as Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA).
Primary school results will be determined by the School Based Assessment (SBA), which is done every year in the upper primary classes and the five subject summative national examination.
The learners will have a 60 per cent of the score coming from SBA spread over Grade Four, Five and Six and 40 per cent from the summative report.
The school-based evaluation are done in form of projects, practicals, portfolios and oral assessments to allow learners to demonstrate what they have learnt, these are executed by the classroom teachers guided by Knec.
The Grade 6 learners will join junior secondary in January next. The selection exercise for Grade 7 junior secondary is currently ongoing and will end on 10th September.
Junior secondary comprise of Grade 7, 8 and 9. The placement exercise to junior secondary will happen in December.