The government has announced elaborate plans to deploy air support to areas that may be affected by the coming El Niño rains during the national examinations in November.
About 3.5 million children are set to sit for their national examinations this year with 1.4 million sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations, another 1.2 million for the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and 900,000 candidates sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (KCSE).
According to the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) El Niño is often associated with heavy rains and floods during the October, November and December (OND) season, especially in East Africa.
Speaking during a meeting with Education Officers from the Coastal region at Shimo la Tewa High School in Mombasa, Principal Secretary for the State Department of Basic Education Dr. Belio Kipsang said that they were working with other government officials including Regional and County Commissioners in mapping out areas likely to be affected by the rains.
Dr. Kipsang said that they were implementing the delivery as one approach in government by working with various stakeholders both in the education and security sectors to ensure that they are well prepared.
“We are preparing for exams at a time when we are expecting the El Niño rains to come. We will map out regions that will be cut by flooding and put in place plans to ensure exams and invigilators get to exam centres on time,” said PS Kipsang.
He added, “Together we are working to mobilize all the equipment that is there across government including our helicopters both in police, military, forestry service, and in KWS, all of them we shall mobilize to support our children during examinations”.
The mapping will be led by Regional Commissioners with support from County Commissioners and their Deputies as part of the National Government Administrative structure.
Dr. Kipsang reiterated the government’s commitment and readiness to administer the examinations and assured candidates that the government has put in place measures to ensure that their examinations would not be disrupted by the expected rains.
“We have looked at conditions and it is more than 90 per cent predicted that there will be El-nino rains and science does not lie, so we wouldn’t want to wish away what is about to happen. It would be totally unfair if that were to happen yet we have been advised it is going to be a challenge,” he said.
The PS added that in insecurity-prone areas like Lamu County, the government has put in place security measures during the entire examination period.
Dr. Kipsang said that the security teams have assured the ministry that they have mapped out the areas and that the safety of the children would be secured as they do their examinations. “We have gotten that assurance from our colleagues in the security sector,” he stated.
The PS also said that the Education Ministry had put measures to ensure examiners, invigilators, markers and security personnel among other individuals involved in the administration of national examinations receive their pay on time to avoid any issues.
While calling for collaborative efforts to ensure that they deliver a credible examination, Dr. Kipsang called for the need to deal with trust deficit during the administration of exams saying that there was no need to engage police officers in exams, but this would only be possible if there’s trust in teachers and their ability to deliver credible exams.
“Let us endeavour to end this trust deficit during national examinations. We need to get back the trust we had in the teaching profession. Why don’t we see mock exams leaking yet we are the ones who set, administer and mark them? We can also do it with the national exams,” Dr Kipsang said.
The PS further cautioned schools against having extra-curricular activities in the third term to allow candidates to prepare well for examinations.
He also asked teachers not to send students, especially candidates, home for school fees in the third term in order to minimize exposing them to incidents that might affect them as they prepare for exams.
By Sadik Hassan
