A total of 10,317 girls and 10,115 boys in Nyeri County are set to write this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE).
In addition, 617 candidates have registered as private adult candidates in the examinations that kicked off on Tuesday this week.
Last year the number of candidates from Nyeri who wrote the exams was 19,856.
The exams began with writing of elective papers in French, German, Sign Language, Arabic, Music and Home Science.
Writing of theory papers will commence on November 4 and run to November 22.
Nationally, a total of 965,501 candidates in 10,750 centres compared to 903,260 who did the papers last year.
Another 1,313,913 Grade Six candidates will be sitting for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KEPSEA) beginning October 28.
Central Region Director of Education Sabina Aroni has told KNA that all necessary preparations have been done to ensure there is a smooth administration of the exams.
“Every necessary briefing has been conducted for all supervisors and invigilators at the sub county level. The oral exams have already started and we expect to have the administration of the exams go on smoothly. However, we have not managed to get the full report of all the candidates sitting for the exams in the region since we had a few hitches in getting the final verified figures from Kiambu county.” she said.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has already released new guidelines for the administration of this year’s examinations in an effort to curb cheating and other exam malpractices.
Among the measures include the personalization of the examination papers to ensure each is unique to a candidate, the rotation of supervisors and a ban on phones for the invigilators, centre managers and candidates while administering exams.
KNEC CEO David Njengere recently said the measures will also enhance the security of the exams by anonymizing the answer scripts during marking, thereby reducing the chances of malpractice and ensuring fairness in the grading process.
This means that the examiners won’t be able to identify the owner of the script, as it will only contain a signature.
“This measure is expected to boost exam security by anonymizing answer scripts during the marking process. The KCSE question papers will be personalized for every candidate. This will help anonymize the answer scripts during marking. More details on this innovation will be shared with supervisors and invigilators during the Sub-County briefing sessions,” said Dr Njengere.
Additionally, KNEC will administer the KPSEA to 1,313,913 candidates in 32,573 centers, bringing the total number of candidates for national exams to over 2.27 million.
For the KPSEA exams, security personnel will now only be involved in the distribution and collection of exam materials.
However, the standard practice of deploying at least two security officers to each KCSE examination center will continue.
Another significant change concerns the use of mobile phones during exams.
All officers involved in exam administration, such as supervisors, invigilators, and centre managers, will now be required to secure their mobile phones in lockable desks, monitored by security officers.
Recently, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba highlighted that KNEC had expanded the number of distribution centres for KCSE materials by adding 41 new centres, bringing the total to 617.
These measures will ensure a smooth and more efficient distribution of exam papers countrywide.
“When we compromise our interventions, we compromise the standards of our certificates, all of us, and that affects our economy, I wish to assure you that the country that the challenges experienced in 2023 in the collection of examination materials for the KCSE twice a day have been addressed by introducing an extra 41 containers,” said Mr Ogamba.
Further, the CS also issued a stern warning regarding examination malpractices, urging all candidates, managers, and supervisors to strictly comply with the laid-down examination regulations.
“The government shall have no mercy on anyone who will be found engaging in the transmission of examination malpractices.” warned Ogamba.
By Samuel Maina
