Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr Belio Kipsang has said the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations will be released by January 23 before schools reopen.
Speaking on Friday when he supervised the release final examination materials at Lang’ata West sub-county container, Kipsang said marking starts immediately.
‘‘Most of us, as you know, have to go out to celebrate Christmas but we shall be running around to make sure that we are prepared to let our children know their status before schools open on January 23,” said Kipsang.
The PS, said the Form Four exams were done successfully and peacefully.
He said the collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Interior and National Administration and Information and Communication Technology(ICT) contributed to the success.
‘‘We are very grateful because our brothers in the Ministry of Interior and National Administration created a conducive environment that was able to make it possible for our children to do their examinations,’’ said Kipsang.
‘‘Even in regions where we had experienced some insecurity, the environment was very peaceful and this time the children did not hear any gun shots anywhere thus a uniform playing field across the country,’’ he added.
He said the conducive environment, also saw good results in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) that was released on Wednesday, December 21.
The PS lauded the teachers, who he said were very careful and took good time to prepare their pupils within the shortest academic year of six months that they were in school.
‘‘If there are people Kenyans need to celebrate are our teachers because what they have done in 21 months running three calendar academic years is not anything that anyone of us would have done, let us celebrate them,’’ he added.
The normal academic calendar year was disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic which saw schools close on March 16, 2020, then partially reopened on 19 October 2020, and fully reopened on 4 January 2021, a period of about nine months.
From January 2023, learning will return back to normal academic calendar year.
In the disrupted calendar, children would close for few days thus giving parents hard time to raise money for shopping and school fees.
The impact of Covid-19 hit many parents and this also strained them and their children emotionally.
The PS also lauded media for showing what he called a degree of professionalism, saying it was unparalleled.
‘‘This year, we have been partners because where there were some challenges in certain parts of the country, you were able to raise it with our partners before you report it,’’ said Dr Kipsang.
On Bungoma County’s Moi DEB School and other schools that have had issues with recent KCPE exams, Kenya National Examination Council(Knec) Chief Executive Officer Dr David Njengere asked the school to file official complain.
The school, which is a top performer, disputed the results has called for review saying they might have gotten results that are not theirs.
‘‘The rules and regulations for national examinations allow for any candidate who feels that they have a query on either way the name was captured or their marks, they have a right to request us to verify the results and as soon as we receive that request, we shall verify for each candidate,’’ said Njengere.
He said any case arriving from the ongoing KCSE exams will be investigated and communicated.
Mr Njengere said Knec officers are compiling the reports on all cases that will be communicated when releasing the KCSE exams.