Only one week after returning to school, Grade four and class eight pupils are expected to sit for exams to mark the end of term one.
According to a circular from the national examinations body – the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) – sent to primary school heads, the exams will start on Monday October 19 and will be school-based.
The exams will be evaluating the level of understanding of the pupils after spending more than six months at home following the shutdown of schools due to COVID-19.
Explaining the need for the exam and the fate of the pupils still at home as a result of the partial lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, acting KNEC CEO Dr Nancy Karogo had this to say:
“Standard Eight and Grade Four assessments will be administered from October 19 to 23, 2020. Assessments for other classes will be conducted upon reopening of specific classes.”
She added that: "the assessments will be administered at school level as per the guidelines and assessment schedules provided by KNEC and following regulations upon which administration of assessments/tests is anchored.”
Standard Eight pupils will be assessed in all the KCPE subjects. However, the test will only contain content they had learnt from class to class eight first term. Grade Four pupils will be assessed in English, Kiswahili and Mathematics subjects as well as environmental activities and science and technology.
Data for policy-making
The assessment programme is part of the Sh1.5 billion Global Partnership for Education (GPE) boost towards the reopening of schools, supervised by the World Bank.
The tests will be done in schools with KNEC providing support to print and administer the assessment tools.
Teachers will then internally mark the papers and upload the scores onto the KNEC portal from where KNEC will verify and validate the scores.
KNEC will then conduct data analysis and interpretation after which they will generate a report to share with stakeholders.
“The overarching aim of the assessment is to inform on possible learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic period and suggest interventions to be put in place to address the learning gaps,” Dr Karogo explains in the circular dated October 8, sent to all primary school heads.
KNEC asserts that the assessment will provide reliable data to be used for policy-making processes with the exercise offering a baseline on which interventions towards improved learning outcomes post COVID-19 can be hinged.