The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has announced new guidelines for the 2024 national examinations aimed at improving efficiency and maintaining integrity.
Among the measures are the personalisation of the examination papers to ensure each is unique to a candidate, the rotation of supervisors; as well as a ban on phones for the invigilators, centre managers and candidates during exams.
The 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be administered from October 22 to November 22, 2024, while the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Intermediate Level Education Assessment (KILEA) will be held from October 28 to November 1, 2024.
According to Knec, this move is designed to prevent cheating by ensuring that each candidate's exam paper is unique.
Knec CEO David Njengere emphasized that this measure will also enhance the security of the exams by anonymising the answer scripts during marking, thereby reducing the chances of malpractice and ensuring fairness in the grading process.
This means that the examiners won't be able to identify the owner of the script, as it will only contain a signature.
“This measure is expected to boost exam security by anonymizing answer scripts during the marking process. The KCSE question papers will be personalized for every candidate. This will help anonymise the answer scripts during marking. More details on this innovation will be shared with supervisors and invigilators during the Sub- County briefing sessions,” said Dr Njengere.
The new system aims to streamline the marking of the 2024 KCSE exams, set to be taken by 965,501 candidates across 10,755 centers, an increase from 903,260 in 2023.
Additionally, Knec will administer the KPSEA to 1,313,913 candidates in 32,573 centers, bringing the total number of candidates for national exams to over 2.27 million. Knec has also revised the deployment of security officers.
For the KPSEA exams, security personnel will now only be involved in the distribution and collection of exam materials.
However, the standard practice of deploying at least two security officers to each KCSE examination center will continue.
Another significant change concerns the use of mobile phones during exams. All staff involved in exam administration, such as supervisors, invigilators, and center managers, will now be required to secure their mobile phones in lockable desks, monitored by security officers.
This step, Knec said, is intended to minimize any potential misconduct and ensure the integrity of the examination process.
“No phones will be allowed during the opening of the exam papers or while the exams are in progress. Phones will be secured in local desks under the supervision of a security officer, with the center holding the key,” said Dr Njegere.
Ms Antonina Lentoijoni, the Director Staffing, Teacher Service Commission (TSC), emphasised that supervisors and invigilators will not be deployed to examination centers where they have vested interests. Instead, they will be required to declare any affiliations with the centers where they will be assigned.
“They will be required to declare any affiliations with the examination centers where they will be assigned,” said Ms Lentoijoni
This strategy is designed to minimize familiarity with the centers and further enhance examination security.
“All KCSE supervisors will be required to serve for only one week at any examination center. They will keep rotating every week. I am confident that even after we have nominated them, none of them will know the centers they will be assigned to. They will be supervised as we sit here today,” said Ms Lentoijoni.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba highlighted that KNEC has expanded the number of distribution centers for KCSE materials by adding 41 new centers which sums up otal to 617, ensuring a smoother and more efficient distribution of exam papers nationwide.
“When we compromise our interventions, we compromise the standards of our certificates, all of us, and that affects our economy, I wish to assure you that the country that the challenges experienced in 2023 in the collection of examination materials for the KCSE twice a day have been addressed by introducing an extra 41 containers,” said Mr Ogamba.
Further, the CS issued a stern warning regarding examination malpractices, urging all candidates, managers, and supervisors to strictly comply with the laid-down examination regulations, cautioning that failure to do so would result in facing "the full force of the law.
“The government shall have no mercy on anyone who will be found engaging in the transmission of examination malpractices,” said Mr Ogamba.
The CS currently, 16,000 classrooms are being constructed to accommodate the new learning requirements. The CS, having toured several counties to monitor progress, expressed confidence that all classrooms will be ready ahead of the 2025 academic calendar.
“We are constructing 16,000 classrooms in our junior schools that will accommodate them IN 2025,” said Mr Ogamba.
