The Government has raised the bar for teachers who will be recruited as examinations supervisors or invigilators.

Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) guidelines released for this years' examinations reveal that only Government-employed teachers will be recruited as supervisors.

The document says possible candidates for consideration must be registered teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

"With a minimum qualification of diploma in Education or Approved Teacher Status (ATS) grade or higher," said Knec acting chief executive officer Mercy Karogo.

And the offer has been extended to public service employees in job group K and above. However, they must have served as teachers and successfully supervised examinations in the past.

Teaching experience

The bar has also been raised for P1 teachers, who Knec says must have been invigilators before.

"P1 teachers with five years' teaching experience, three years of which he or she must have participated in the invigilation of Knec examinations... may be considered for supervision duties," read the guidelines.

But Thursday, teachers in private schools protested the criteria that they said locked them out of examination administration.

Kenya Private schools Association Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndoro termed it unfortunate ''to only consider TSC teachers.''

"Even teachers in private schools are qualified and can perform these duties. Why have they been neglected? We ask the Government to revise the criteria to be all-inclusive," said Ndoro.

Speaking as he unveiled the examination reforms months ago, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i said persons to supervise and invigilate examinations will be carefully selected.

Higher grade

For invigilators, Knec wants teachers with P1 grade or higher qualifications, also registered and working with TSC.

"They must have teaching experience of one year or more and be persons of integrity," says KNEC.

The number of invigilators and supervisors to be recruited was not immediately clear.

Last year, Knec employed about 200,000 staff to run the examinations.

A total of 191,555 contracted personnel were engaged during the administration of the 2015 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.

Of these, 119,929 persons – supervisors, invigilators, security officers and drivers – were engaged during administration of KCPE alone. And for KCSE, some 51,717 professionals were hired.