The Principal Secretary for Basic Education, Dr. Belio Kipsang, has said the Grade 6 learners sitting for the Kenya Education Primary School Education (KPSEA) will not be issued with certificates like it used to be in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
Instead the CS said the KPSEA candidates will be issued with a report highlighting their subjects performance levels.
He said what the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has previously issued to KPSEA candidates is not a certificate but a report.
A total of 1,313,913 Grade 6 students on Monday, October 28, begun their KPSEA as part of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
The exams will test the learners’ comprehension of six subjects which are scaled down to five papers – Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Science, Social Studies and Creative Arts.
The students who begun with Mathematics and English papers on Monday, will sit for Integrated Science and Kiswahili on Tuesday before concluding with Creative Arts and Social Studies on Wednesday.
KPSEA, which began in 2022, aims to facilitate the students’ transition to Junior Secondary School (JSS).
According to the government, KPSEA offers a more relaxed exam environment with a keen focus on Competency-based assessment.
However unlike past national exams i.e KCPE, the government has scaled down police presence inside the schools.
In most schools not a single police officer could be seen inside the school compound only invigilators, supervisors, centre manager and a few authorized personnel.
Education cabinet secretary Julius Ogamba said the security officers will only escort the materials to schools but should not enter them.
He said this is in an attempt to create a relaxed environment for the learners.
He spoke on Monday when he opened the exam storage container in the Westlands sub-County in Nairobi.
After undertaking the assessment, the learners will progress automatically to Grade 7.
Unlike the phased-out KCPE, the assessment is not used for placement of the learner.
KPSEA is organised in two parts: formative and summative. The formative assessment is school-based and is weighted at 60 per cent in every learning area.
The learners have already completed this and were marked by their respective teachers who then submitted the marks to the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec).
The current assessment will be marked by Knec and will account for 40 per cent.
KPSEA is a final assessment in Primary Schools for Grade 6 learners before joining Junior Secondary Schools at Grade 7.