KCSE theory begins under new strict rules

Moi Girls School  Nairobi candidates prepare for their KCSE exams. [File, Standard]

Over 900,000 learners commence the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) theory papers this morning, as the examination body assured that all is set for the tests, which will run for the next three weeks.

This year, Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has introduced new measures in exam administration, as part of curbing cheating, which includes personalising papers and not printing extra papers.

The agency’s Chief Executive Officer David Njengere while assuring to guard exam integrity reiterated that the papers will be personalised bearing each students’ name and index number.

At the end of each paper, the part with candidates’ details will be torn off and packed separately to guard against examiners identifying the candidates while marking. Knec confirmed they have a unique way of identifying each candidate’s paper, which they said they won’t reveal for security reasons.

“This is the first time that the part that has the candidates’ details will be separated... so that examiners are not able to see the name of the candidate,” Dr Njengere told The Standard yesterday. “ We are set and have given briefings... After the national briefing, we went to every sub-county, to centre managers, supervisors, were all briefed, especially with the new innovations,” he added.

Since the history of examinations, the Knec boss noted, they have been printing extra question papers, which later emerged as one of the loopholes that the Council has had to seal.

“This time there will be no extra papers because we have personalised them all,” he affirmed.

This is a departure from the past when candidates were required to write their details on the papers, a loophole exploited over the years to abet examinations malpractices such as impersonation.

Additionally, candidates who engage in examination cheating will be held personally responsible in new guidelines to be rolled out this year.

Exam malpractice by individual candidates will not be used to punish an entire school or an examination centre unlike in the past when examination centres or schools with suspected irregularities have had their results cancelled or withheld.

In yet another measure, the CEO said that the morning and afternoon session papers will be packed separately, in a bid to cure the problem of early exposure.

“We will continue with double collection, last year it work pretty well. We killed the challenge that we have had all these years on early exposure by collecting twice, and we will continue with that. Fortunately, we have not had a problem of rains this year,” he said.

Some 41 additional containers will be erected to enhance double collection and also stem early exposure of examination papers, bringing the total to 610 containers.

KNEC has said that all containers will be opened at 7.00am.

All the centre managers are required to have an approved list of persons in the centre, who should also have identity cards for purposes of identification. 

Similarly, mobile phones of all personnel in the centres will be locked up and the key kept by the supervisor.

At the same time, Njengere said Knec has ensured that candidates will have adequate break on days they have two papers in the morning and afternoon session.

“From 2016, the papers were congested. Candidates would sit the morning paper from 8am to 10am and then we would only give them one-hour break and sit for the next one from 11am, which meant we were not giving them enough time to rest after doing one paper. But now, the second paper of the day will be done from 2pm and this is a friendlier environment for the candidate,” he said.

According to Njengere, candidates will not be able to sit for subjects they are not registered for, unlike the past when Knec allowed this to happen in what was referred to as under-protest candidates.

This also mean that only registered candidates will sit the exam and only for the subjects they are listed for.

“We gave you two months to register candidates and we even did a campaign where we met all centre managers and informed them of these innovations. We, therefore, expect that all candidates’ details were captured accurately at the registration stage and there will no room for excuses,” Njengere, previously said.

The 2024 examination and assessments cycle started with registration of candidates which was undertaken for two months between January 29 and March 29. Some 965,501 candidates registered for KCSE examination, compared to the 903,264 candidates who sat the examination last year.