KNEC Senior Deputy Secretary Ambia Noor explained that the commission has hired helicopters which will transport examination materials to affected exam centres to ensure there are no hitches/file
Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee on Thursday, KNEC Senior Deputy Secretary Ambia Noor explained that the commission has hired helicopters which will transport examination materials to affected exam centres to ensure there are no hitches.
She indicated that adequate personnel have also been dispatched to administer, invigilate and mark the exams.
“We have dispatched the advance instructions and all the examination stationery that are required for the administration of the examinations and the timetables and answer booklets – to be specific – are in the distribution centres as we speak. All the exams especially KCSE and KCPE have been printed packed and ready for dispatch,” she stated.
She further pointed out that measures have been put in place to curb any form of exam malpractice.
“For exam malpractice, we have put several measures in place. First of all during the administration of exams with effect from 12th October, we have 500 officers on the ground from different arms of government, mainly the Ministry of Education which are monitoring the exams real-time,” she said.
The main KCSE papers start next week, while KCPE will commence early next month.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Jacob Kaimenyi stated that 25,000 examiners have been engaged to administer the examination to students countrywide, after resisting pressure to postpone exams, due to the (now suspended) teachers strike.
Kaimenyi further warned that stern action will be taken against schools that do not register their candidates for national examinations.
The CS pointed out that some schools unscrupulously neglect to register students thus causing complications during the exam period.
“If you are supposed to register students and you do not do so, you will face the full force of the law. If the students are prepared for the exams, it is the institutions which should help them to register and that is why I am saying, if they do not do so, it is a crime,” he stated.
The KNEC Senior Deputy Secretary also called on both the students and parents to be vigilant and let the body know should their registration be delayed.
“KNEC solely depends on the information we receive on the online data base and the information we receive from the county directors of education, sub county education officers and the principals of schools. If nobody tells us that their candidates were not registered, then the council would not know,” she said.
In the meantime, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) indicated that it will permanently employ the relief teachers who had already started teaching before the end of the month long strike that paralysed learning in public schools countrywide.
The commission’s Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia stated that the teachers were fully qualified and would be absorbed into the teaching profession.
She said that the budget to be used to pay the teachers will not be affected by the return to work of the striking tutors.
She further pointed out that the commission will liaise with its County Directors to ensure that no teacher is left out.
“If there are people who have already gotten letters and most likely gone to school before the injunctions, then they can continue teaching in these schools because the budget is there for those people who have left due to natural attrition,” she said.
TSC chairperson Lydia Nzomo stressed that the recruitment process was within the mandate of the commission.
“What we did towards the end of last month as regards to the 70,000 teachers is within our constitutional mandate and as a constitutional commission we are mandated by Article 237 2(b) to recruit registered teachers.”
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