Record 3.4 million candidates to sit national exams, assessments this year
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi
| Oct 03, 2025
Kenya Primary School Education Assessment candidates celebrating after completion of tests at Nyamachaki Primary Schoo in Nyeri in November 2023. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will this year administer examinations and assessments to a record 3,424,836 candidates.
A total of 1,130,669 candidates have registered for the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), as the first exit assessment at the end of Junior Secondary School.
The assessment will see a break in how examinations have been conducted in the past, with candidates expected to respond directly in personalised question papers bearing their names and index numbers.
The candidates will be required to sign the paper and a perforated counterfoil, which will be detached and packed separately at the end of each session.
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be administered to 996,078 candidates, while Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will involve 1,298,089 registered candidates.
For the first time, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) announced it will pilot the use of smart padlocks to safeguard the examination materials in the storage containers.
KNEC Chief Executive David Njengere said 250 out of the 642 containers will be secured by the digital smart padlocks to enhance the security of the materials.
The exams and assessments will run from Friday, October 17, to Friday, November 21, 2025.
The cycle began earlier with candidate registration from January 30 to March 30, 2025.
For KCSE, at least two security officers per examination center are required, with 2,568 officers securing containers overall.
In total, there will be 22,247 officers.
Supervisors, invigilators, and center managers will receive briefings on this process starting Monday next week.
For KJSEA and KPSEA, security officers will be engaged minimally with only for material distribution and script returns in areas with security challenges, to maintain a normal, conducive environment.