KCSE candidates prepare to sit their first written examination paper at Coast Girls Secondary School in Mombasa November 4, 2024.
Secondary school teachers will not invigilate the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. Instead, the duty will be undertaken by their counterparts from primary schools.
Secondary school teachers will, however, work as supervisors, while principals will be deployed as centre managers. The administrative changes have been effected to curb examination malpractices in national examinations.
The Nation understands that the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) requested the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to deploy teachers from primary schools to invigilate the exams. The KCSE examinations will involve 10,765 centre managers, 12,126 supervisors, 54,782 invigilators, 22,247 security officers and 2,692 drivers.
Last year, a total of 840 KCSE candidates had their results cancelled for their involvement in examination malpractice. Some of the cases were blamed on poor invigilation, with some invigilators colluding with candidates to cheat and failing to monitor or enforce examination rules.
Additionally, the results of 2,899 candidates suspected of being involved in irregularities were withheld, pending investigations by the Knec.
“For this exam season, we agreed with TSC that supervisors will be teachers from secondary schools but invigilators will be teachers from primary school,” said a Knec official.
To further reduce cases of examination malpractice, all the examination materials have unique security features and are personalised to each candidate. There will also be no extra papers.
Primary school teachers have also been invigilating the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and, Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA). The KPSEA ended on Wednesday, while the KJSEA will conclude on Monday.
Centres that have both KJSEA and KPSEA are managed by 24,213 centre managers, 26,479 supervisors and 125,492 invigilators.
This year, a total of 3.4 million candidates are sitting the national examinations. They include 996,078 candidates registered for KCSE, 1.29 million for KPSEA, and 1.13 million for the inaugural KJSEA.
Apart from deploying primary school teachers to ensure the integrity of the examinations, Knec has introduced smart padlocks to enhance the security of examination materials and curb early exposure of the papers.
Centre managers, supervisors and invigilators are also supposed to surrender their mobile phones upon entry at the examination centre to avoid early exposure to exams.
KPSEA candidates will transition to Junior School, which starts at Grade Seven, while KJSEA candidates will transition to Senior School, which starts at Grade 10.
On Monday, during the official launch of the KPSEA and KJSEA examinations, Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok assured candidates that they would secure admission to senior school, as the available 2.4 million spaces in Grade 10 exceeded their number of 1.4 million.
