The Kenya National Examination Council is rolling out an electronic tests administration system that is set to end cases of examination irregularities.
Punctured by this year’s massive examination leaks, the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) last week kicked off the piloting phase of the computer based testing system.
The system, to be used for the first time tomorrow, will enable candidates tackle questions and submit answers online. The results would be relayed on real time, as marking would be done automatically while candidates write the tests.
Under the arrangement, candidates would be required to log into a computer connected to the Internet using their registration details.
“Questions shall be sent to them immediately they log into the system and the clock counting the set duration of the tests starts to ticking. As soon as the time elapses, the system logs out automatically,” said Knec Chief Executive Officer Joseph Kivilu.
Pilot programme
Speaking to The Standard on Sunday after the launch of the project at Sunshine Secondary School, Mr Kivilu said the system would deal a major blow to persons keen to water down credibility of national examinations through cheating.
Kivilu said some 55 candidates undertaking this year’s KCSE Qualifying Test shall be assessed using the new system that shall be rolled out to cover major national examinations.
Qualifying Tests, also known as QT, are examinations given to categories of candidates who would wish to pursue secondary education in Kenya but do not have KCPE certificates. The examinations are also given to students who studied outside the country and wish to sit secondary examinations.
This year, 300 students will write these examinations that majorly test Kiswahili, English, Mathematics and Science. Kivilu said all the candidates will write the examinations using ‘pen and paper’ but noted that only 55 at Sunshine Secondary School will sit the tests using the new system for piloting purposes. The candidates were Monday taken through a rigorous sitting rehearsal by Knec officials. “Some of the candidates do not have computer skills and so they must be taken trough the basics. They were also taken trough the basic examination procedures, rules and regulations,” said Kivilu. “As for now the candidates are set and come Monday 9am they shall sit the two hours paper electronically,” he said. Kivilu said examination format and testing for this QT pilot has been refined to multiple choices.
“The examinations were developed by the Knec test developers and the computer program to administer the examinations done by the Knec ICT department,” said Kivilu.
Kivilu said if successful, all the QT examinations shall be done electronically. “If all goes per plan, we shall work on how we can roll this electronic testing to the rest of national examinations using the digital learning program of the Jubilee Government,” said Kivilu. He said electronic administration of examinations shall be a sure way of ensuring the security of examinations is beyond manipulation at any stage.
“Questions to be tackled will be under Knec control and will only be made available on the day and time of the examination,” he said.
“The Knec system shall be highly protected and even hackers would not find it easy to manipulate the examinations. This will go a long way in reducing irregularities compared to use of printed examinations,” said Kivilu. Currently, printing of the examinations are done overseas and preserved with tamper proof seals.
However, the examinations, which are packed in polybags, are easily manipulated during distribution as they are left under the custody of the police, field education officers, examination officer of the zone and the supervisors. “The system has strong features such as logged user activity and security management system which controls access,” said Kivilu.
Different questions
A concept paper dubbed ‘KNEC QT System, Automark System’ explains new testing system that would bring sanity to the examinations.
The paper says under this arrangement, candidates would answer different sets of the same questions arranged randomly to eliminate cheating. “The system will make it possible to generate different versions of the same question for different students thus reducing chances of cheating,” reads the document.
Meanwhile, Knec says the process of setting national examinations is watertight. A source familiar with the process took The Standard on Sunday through the process of setting a typical examination paper.
Each year, Knec invites instructors in Technical Training Colleges or Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs), or university lecturers to submit questions on specific areas of a subject. These are called “Examination Items.”
Primary school teachers are not allowed to set the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations and secondary school teachers are not allowed to set Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Education examination. Primary school examinations can be set by high school teachers or even retired teachers. Secondary school examinations are by tradition set by university lecturers or tutors in TTCS. However sometimes KNEC invites secondary school teachers to submit examination items too.
As a many as 200 questions can be submitted on a particular topic. “ The persons who set the questions do not get feedback on which questions have been accepted,” said the source.
