The Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Julius Ogamba, has confirmed national examinations are running smoothly in Junior and senior secondary schools.
Speaking to the press, the CS said that all the examination materials are ready and that learners have already rehearsed all the examination protocols and the examining bodies are ready to administer and supervise the examination exercise with utmost professionalism and credibility as required.
“The country has a total of 3.4 million candidates enrolled for examination, the highest ever recorded in the country and the candidates will undertake the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
The examinations for grade 9 learners transitioning to grade 10 will have an accumulative mark of 60 percent because the other 40 percent is what they have already acquired in the process of their learning at JSS.” CS Ogamba said.
He assured that adequate plans and preparations have been made for the smooth transition of learners from Junior Secondary School (JSS) to Senior Secondary School (SSS), which will be domiciled in the current secondary school institutions.
“The Ministry of Education allocated Sh950 million to retool all teachers on the new Competence Based Education (CBE) Curriculum. The commission has already recruited 76,000 teachers for JSS and they shall be facilitated to recruit another batch of 24,000 teachers to be in class by January next year.
The ministry moreover ordered a verification exercise on our basic education facilities, gathering crucial information which included knowing the number of schools in our country, the number of students and the grades they are in so that this crucial data will enable us to make informed decisions based on the evidence we have gathered, compiled and analysed to guide the rationalisation of the teacher-to-student ratio across the country,” Ogamba stated.
He explained that learners who will transit to Junior secondary school will be enrolled in three pathways which include sports and arts, social science and STEM and learners will be placed in one of the pathways they are competent in, saying the JSS learners have already been guided on how to select Senior schools in accordance with their preferred pathways.
“There is sufficient room and space for senior school learners because the current secondary school setup did not have form ones and form fours will be leaving immediately after they finish their final exams next month; therefore, there is no challenge in terms of infrastructure,” CS Ogamba guaranteed.
He appealed to all Kenyans to allow candidates to do their examinations without any interference or lure them into any form of malpractice since they risk suffering legal consequences.
He wished all the candidates all the best, confirming that there is no cause for alarm because the government has their full support and will transition all learners to their next levels of study in accordance with their career dreams and capability.
By Deborah Bochere
