The marking of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Insha and Composition papers is nearing completion after examiners reported for the assignment this week.
The Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) had invited examiners to apply for the 2021 marking exercise.
Knec contacted successful examiners to report for the marking of insha and composition papers at Alliance High School.
“CHANGE OF REPORTING DATE FOR EXAMINERS. You are expected to report on Tuesday 15th March 2022 at ALLIANCE HIGH SCHOOL latest by 3pm. Coordination begins immediately. Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this change. Thank you,” read a message sent to one of the examiners.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha assured that KCPE results will be ready in two weeks.
“If we challenge ourselves, the results will come out within fourteen days,” Magoha said.
Magoha said marking started immediately after the first three papers were submitted.
The marking of Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies and Kiswahili from all regions has already been done.
“If we delay we shall get to that time but do not be surprised if we complete a little earlier,” Magoha said at the Kamkunji Sub-County container pick-up point in Nairobi during the last day of the test.
This means candidates may know their results any time from next week.
Early Learning and Basic Education PS Julius Jwan also assured of early release of the results to allow smooth transition to secondary school.
“We are determined to ensure no time is lost. Marking of exams will be concluded within a short while and results released to allow students to proceed to secondary education by May,” the PS said.
The marking of multiple-choice questions has been made easier by the acquisition of the modern Optical Mark Recognition which electronically scores the papers. The OMR captures marked data from candidates’ answer sheets using specialised scanning.
The machines work with a dedicated scanning device that shines a beam of light on the paper. The contrasting reflection at predetermined positions on a page is used to detect marked areas as they reflect less light than the blank areas of the paper.
With the new machines, scripts are marked in batches of 100 and 200 sheets, unlike the previous technology, which took hours.
This year the council registered 1,225,507 candidates in 28,316 KCPE examination centres as compared to 1,191,752 candidates in 28,467 centres in 2020.
This reflects an increase of 33,755 representing 2.75 per cent.
KCPE exam centres were served from 491 distribution centres.