Public and private primary schools will start the process of school choices for the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates today.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) suspended the selection of schools to allow faster registration of the KCPE candidates.
This was after numerous complaints from teachers over inefficient Knec servers that made registration difficult.
However Knec said the process will start today 16th May and that candidates can now start to select secondary schools they would like to be placed next year.
According to Knec the registration of KCPE, KPSEA and KCSE candidates ended on 14th May 2022 after schools entered the learners bio data.
For KCPE and KCSE registration schools were required to key in the following details.
1 Correct order of candidate’s names as they appear in the Birth Certificate;
2 Gender;
3 Year of birth;
4 Citizenship;
5 Subjects registered for, including the optional ones where applicable;
6 Information on different categories of candidates with special needs (i.e., Blind, Low vision, Deaf and Physically challenged).
For KPSEA schools were required to verify the learners details. Schools were also required to register learners who missed in the register and there scores for Grade 3, 4 and 5 uploaded.
The placement of Grade 6 learners to junior secondary is still marred with confusion.
School choices for the candidates is not yet set despite CS Magoha saying the learners will be placed in day and boarding junior secondary schools across the country.
The learners will be tested in five subjects including Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Integrated Sciences and Creative and Social Sciences.
The pioneer Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) learners will sit for their final test in primary schools from 28th to 30th November 2022 before transiting to junior secondary in January.
Knec official timetable also shows that the learners will have a rehearsal day on 25th November before starting the tests.
The tests known as Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will replace the outdated Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
CS Magoha confirmed that the exams have been printed and are ready for administering in the end of this year.
KNEC Competency Based Assessment (CBA) Coordinator Ann Ngatia explained that Integrated and Creative Sciences will be an integration of various sub-subjects and that the five will be part of the KPSEA at the end of primary school.
“The exam will be a multiple-choice test covering the five papers. IS will see us combine science and technology and will cover Home Science, Agriculture, and Physical Health while CASS will combine Art and Craft, Music, Social Studies and religious education (CRE, IRE and HRE),” she noted.
The coordinator added that the 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.
“We 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 so that we do not rely on a one-time assessment to determine the potential of the learner,” Ngatia added.
Ngatia expounded that the school-based evaluation will be done in form of projects, practicals, portfolios and oral assessments to allow learners to demonstrate what they have learnt, this will be executed by the classroom teachers guided by Knec.
On his part, Deputy Director for Secondary Education Lawrence Karundi noted that the Junior Secondary Schools will be domiciled in high schools. He also revealed that the Grade Seven to Eight students will be day scholars.
“When it comes to the issue of dormitories, especially with the junior secondary, our focus is that this should be a day school, not boarding. The transition will be in such a way that students join schools within where they are now, therefore, boarding may not be necessary,” Karundi stated.
Deputy Director in the State Department for the Implementation of Curriculum Reforms, Ruth Mugambi added that the Grade Six candidates will be placed into Junior Secondary Schools based on their performance, subjects chosen and the ability to join the day schools.
“Placement will be determined by the performance of the learners in Grade Six report and the optional subjects that they will have chosen. The students will be informed which schools offer the subjects within their proximity based on guidelines from the ministry,” Mugambi added.