Some 162 schools that had less than 40 candidates have been closed as examination centres, even as 112,000 more candidates registered for national exams this year compared to 2020.
Despite the increased number of candidates, the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has reduced the number of examination centres for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
For KCPE, the number has been reduced from 28,467 last year to 28,329 centres and from 10,437 KCSE centres to 10,413 centres.
This was after Knec issued a circular in May directing schools with less than 40 candidates to register their candidates in neighbouring schools.
The most affected are private schools, which have been pushing for the number of candidates to be reduced to the usual 15 candidates, which Knec had set as the minimum number per school.
An additional 78,424 students have registered for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam this year compared to last year.
At the same time, an extra 34,085 have registered for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam this year.
Yesterday, Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) chief executive officer David Njeng’ere, said the rise in KCSE candidates demonstrates more students are completing secondary education.
“Sure, it will cost more to administer the exams. Clearly, the 100 per cent transition policy is bearing fruit, so we can't complain but celebrate that more children are able to complete secondary education,” said Dr Njeng’ere.
He revealed that a total of 2,056,719 candidates have registered for the two examinations up from the 1,938,667 candidates who sat the 2020 exams.
In secondary schools, a total of 831,026 candidates (407,606 female and 423,420 male) have registered for the 2021 KCSE exams. For KCPE, a total of 1,225,693 candidates (609,294 female and 616,399 male) have registered.
A further 5,314 private candidates have registered for the exams.
Data in the 2021 Economic Survey shows that a total of 1,191,727 registered for the 2020 KCPE exams, but only 1,088,989 sat them. For KCSE, a total of 752,933 registered, with 2,695 girls and 3,077 boys failing to sit the exams.
The increase in the 2021 candidature is expected to increase the cost of running the examinations. The higher number of candidates sitting for the Class Eight exams is also likely to increase congestion in secondary schools.
This year, Knec has recruited 4,200 more examiners ahead of the national examinations. They were recruited in September and trained between October 3 and 9.
For KCPE, Knec recruited 700 more English Composition and Kiswahili Insha examiners, while for KCSE exams, it recruited 3,500 examiners in English, Kiswahili, Biology, Chemistry, History and Government 3, Christian Religious Education and Agriculture.
In the 2020 examinations, a total of 227,679 teachers were engaged as invigilators, supervisors and centre managers, while 25,135 examiners were involved in the markings.
At the same time, Knec has released the time table for the 2021 KCSE and KCSE examination.
Dr Njeng’ere said the KCPE exams will start on March 7 and end on March 9, while KCSE written exams will start on February 28 and run until April 1. Practical examinations will begin on February 28.
This will be the second time Knec will administer examinations in March and April because of the disruption of the school calendar due to the Covid 19 pandemic, which saw schools remain closed for nine months.
