Teachers will boycott invigilation and supervision of the 2023 national exams, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary general, Collins Oyuu, has announced.
Oyuu says both primary and secondary school teachers will not take part in this years exam management following refusal by Knec to release the dues of teachers who took part in 2022.
He called for immediate release of the teachers dues. He wondered why the exams were manned, marked and results released yet Knec is delaying to pay its contracted professionals.
KNEC 2022 PAYMENT RATES FOR CONTRACTED PROFESSIONALS
| Contracted Professional | Exam | Region | Pay Per Day | Total Days engaged | Total Pay |
| Centre Manager | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh500 | 4 | Sh2,000 |
| Centre Manager | KCSE | All Regions | Sh500 | 18 | Sh9,000 |
| Invigilators | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh538 | 3 | Sh1,615 |
| Invigilators | KCSE | Nairobi & Mombasa | Sh580 | 17 | Sh9,860 |
| Invigilators | KCSE | Other Regions | Sh460 | 17 | Sh7,820 |
| Supervisors | KCPE/KPSEA | All Regions | Sh621 | 4 | Sh2,485 |
| Supervisors | KCSE | Nairobi & Mombasa | Sh695 | 18 | Sh12,510 |
| Supervisors | KCSE | Other Regions | Sh630 | 18 | Sh11,340 |
| Security Officers | KCSE | All Regions | Sh420 | 16 | Sh6,720 |
| Drivers | KCSE | All Regions | Sh405 | 16 | Sh6,480 |
Despite a promise by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu two weeks ago that the examiners will start getting paid in one week time this has not happened.
Machogu had said the government will start paying dues owed to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) examiners in the 2022 exams starting Monday 17th July.
Speaking during the inaugural Education Day by area MP Gitonga Mukunji at Kangaru School in Manyatta Constituency, Embu County, the CS said Ksh. 2 billion has been set aside to ensure that KNEC examiners, contracted officials and suppliers’ debt is cleared.
Machogu said moving forward, his ministry will prioritize prompt payment to examiners to ensure no such delays will be experienced again.
“Walimu wetu ambao tunatumia kuwa examiners katika mitihani yetu ya kitaifa najua tulichelewa kidogo kulipa pesa yao wale walitusaidia national marking ya 2022 lakini sasa kupitia kwa mheshimiwa rais tumepewa billion mbili kutoka next week mimi nitawalipa wote,” he said.
However teachers are continuing to suffer embarrassments as Knec keeps delaying making the payments.
In the 2022 exams and assessments a total of 28,408 teachers were used as centre managers, 28,727 as supervisors, 74,990 as invigilators and 5,647 as examiners.
At the same time Knec has mooted fresh security measures to curb cheating during this year’s national examination.
The examination officials will no longer pick all the day’s examination papers in the morning.
Instead, centre managers, who are also the school heads, will only pick the morning papers.
Knec will procure additional containers to bring examinations storage facilities to schools.
This, insiders said, will cut down on the time taken to pick and drop the examination papers under the new arrangement.
These are some of the new measures being rolled out three months to the national examinations.
After candidates complete the morning paper, the examination officials will return them to the container as they pick the afternoon papers.
Insiders at the Ministry of Education said that the move is aimed at preventing early exposure to afternoon papers.
“They will no longer have so much time with question papers meant for the afternoon because they will be kept in the container and only picked minutes to the exam,” said a ministry official.
Also to be reviewed is the current practice that requires examination officials to pick question papers from containers within their sub-counties.
Officials of schools or examination centres will be required to pick question papers from the nearest container.
This is because it emerged that some schools, situated near some containers, have not been able to pick examinations from those storage facilities just because they do not fall within the sub-county.
Data released by Knec at the close of examinations registration shows that some 1.4 million candidates will sit Kenya Certificate of primary Education (KCPE). Another 1.2 million Grade Six learners will write the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA).
And some 903,260 will sit this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
According to the Knec 2023 examination timetable, KCPE KPSEA examination candidates will rehearse on Friday October 27.
The three-day exams will run concurrently and are scheduled to start on Monday October 30.
They will end on Wednesday November 1, paving way for the KCSE exam which will be administered from November 2-24.
Exam malpractice is giving government agencies sleepless nights, with each engaging in blame game.
Education ministry officials have blamed the police as the weakest links in examination administration.
The Director of Criminal Investigation has also been accused of doing shoddy investigations that cannot sustain prosecution.
The ODPP and Judiciary blame the investigators for not providing enough evidence to warrant prosecution.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) also points fingers at the Judiciary for protecting criminals who create and run sites that are used to abet cheating.
And CA has been faulted for not acting quick to pull down sites used to sell fake examination material.
Despite the blame games, preparations are in top gear three month to the tests.
Examination officials have visited the printer to verify the preparation processes.