The Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has said the grade six national assessment tests are now being printed.
Magoha says the tests will be done in December 2022 by grade 6 learners, even when he is not going to be a CS in the next government.
“The examinations are now being printed for December for our children, so they should not worry because everything has been planned, even if there is a repeat election and that election take same time as exams,” said Magoha.
Already the distribution of grade 6 learning materials by the government in primary schools is completed. These include KICD curriculum designs and course materials.
Knec also completed its pilot summative assessment for Grade Six learners December last year. Knec used the grade 5 learners for the assessment.
The pilot test was to allow KNEC to establish suitability of the assessment tools, the exams’ difficulty levels, language appropriateness, adequacy of the duration of the exam and the reporting format for learners’ competencies.
The pilot test was conducted in both public and private primary schools in the 47 counties.
Knec has already warned parents that they will not be able to transfer their children after grade five.
A document by the Knec spells that under the CBC school transfers will only be admissible to learners in between Grade 1 and 5.
Upon reaching Grade 4 and 5, learners will be required to go to the sub-county director of education should they seek a transfer.
Learners will also need a special assessment number issued by KNEC when they finish Grade 3.
This number will be used to facilitate the assessment of the learners that begins in Grade 4.
The assessment number will be consistent throughout their education and will be used by KNEC in recording the learners’ assessment progress.
This means that should a learner opts to transfer from one school to the other, they will have to retain the assessment number.
Those seeking transfers under CBC at that level—Grade 4 and 5—assessment number will be used to facilitate the transfer process.
The school where the learner was, will receive the transfer request online and click Accept/decline button.
A learner will be transferred to the new school upon acceptance by the headteacher.
“Learners not in the KNEC system at Grade 4 and 5 can be registered by both the sub-county director of education and the headteacher,” the document reads.
Under CBC assessment will be in Grade 4, 5 and 6.
Under the new curriculum, transition from Grade 6 to junior high school will be based on a hybrid model involving a combination of CATs (Classroom Assessment Techniques) and KNEC tests.
Learners in the Competency-Based Curriculum will sit a final examination at the end of primary school, just like KCPE, but the test will not entirely decide their secondary school.
Learners will be required to take CATs at the end of Grades 4, 5 and 6 that will be part of the final mark the learners get at the end of primary school.
Each CAT will carry 20 per cent of the final mark. This means the three CATs will cumulatively account for 60 per cent of the final score.
The remaining 40 per cent will be from the Kenya National Examination Council exam to be issued administered the end of Grade 6.
Headteachers shall access the Competency Based Assessment through a KNEC portal: cba.knec.ac.ke using the school’s username and password.
There will be a double intake in 2023 due to this years grade six learners who will sit for their final national assessment in December to join junior secondary at grade 7.
At the same time this year’s class seven learners under the 8-4-4 education system will join form one after sitting their KCPE exams in November.
A report by CBC task force says the total number of Grade Six and Standard Eight learners expected to join secondary school in 2023 will be 2,571,044.
“Approximately 1,250,649 learners enrolled at Grade 4 in 2020 will transit to Junior secondary school (Grade 7) as the first cohort of the 2-6-3-3-3 while the 1,320,395 Standard Six cohort of 2020 will transition to Form One under 8-4-4 system in 2023,” reads the CBC task force report.
Learners under the Competency-Based Curriculum will not be allowed to transfer schools upon reaching Grade 6.