KNEC Head of Public Communications Frida Were said they were forced to extend the period because of the large number of schools trying to access the registration portal at the last minute/FILE
In a communiqué sent to newsrooms on Friday, KNEC Head of Public Communications Frida Were said they were forced to extend the period because of the large number of schools trying to access the registration portal at the last minute.
“In order to take care of the few schools which may not be able to register by Monday, March 31 and owing to the challenges being experienced, the registration period for the 2014 KCSE examination which is most affected has been extended with seven days to end on April 7,” she stated.
The registration deadline for the 2014 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination however remains Monday and, “no candidate will be registered after the given dates,” Were stressed.
As of Friday morning, 35,000 more candidates had registered for the 2014 KCPE examination compared to 2013 with 8,000 more registering for the 2014 KCSE examination compared to 2013.
“This therefore means that schools which have not registered are few and may be trying to register all at the same time thus congesting the system,” Were stated.
During the release of the 2013 KCSE examination results on March 3, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi cautioned school heads against refusing to register candidates because they performed poorly in previous examinations.
He has also come out strongly against school heads who force their students to repeat classes until they bring up their grades and by extension don’t bring the school’s mean score down.
Parents were also cautioned against enrolling their children into class one before they attain the age of six.
“I urge parents and guardians to note that the benefits of accelerating their children’s education are heavily outweighed by the disadvantages,” he said.
In the past, the school ranking system has also come under criticism and been blamed by among other stakeholders, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) for entrenching a culture of drilling to pass examinations by schools as opposed to fostering a holistic learning environment.
“Ranking system should be abolished. We had discussed this issue and the stakeholders agreed that the system was not reflecting the actual performance of students across the country,” the union’s chair Omboko Milemba said following the release of the 2013 KCSE results.
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