Thousands of pupils who are set to sit for the national examinations that are set to begin next week under the Competence Based Curriculum(CBC) are experiencing uncertain moments over a directive set by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC)
KNEC in a recent directive to schools ordered institutions with less than 30 pupils will not serve as examination centers. Candidates will be required to move to alternative schools with a larger population before they can be allowed to sit for the tests.
Parents and education stakeholders revealed that the directive would jeopardize their preparation efforts as well as expose thousands of children to panic over unfamiliar environments that they were not used to.
‘’When you have for example 21 candidates, you are forced to go and do the exams in another center, that is the public schools but we are seeing our children are used to our centers as they are conducive so taking them to alternative schools might expose them to culture shock,’’ revealed a teacher at a private school during an interview with Citizen TV.
‘’There was not enough awareness of the directive, as we speak, so many public schools are complaining over lack of enough staff to oversee the CBC,’’ Lilian Akugo, a school head revealed.
This is even as it emerged that some of the tests are supposed to be done using modern technologies such as the use of computers, a situation that could potentially disadvantage learners from marginalized areas, and schools with no similar infrastructure.
‘’There is a failure in the government because CBC as it is, we may have the content but do we have the resources? If you look at the learning areas, some of them are computerized as some require a lot of research and material, this has been a challenge to parents,’’ Geoffrey Otieno, a parent revealed.
Stakeholders also cast their doubts on the effectiveness of the nature of the questions that the learners are supposed to respond to, maintaining that there was confusion after KNEC set questions that required learners to write their responses using A,B,C,D answers.
This is likely to interfere with the learners as they were prepared and used to answering open ended questions as per the design of the CBC, where they are allowed to write their thoughts and answers.
‘’These learners are used to open-ended questions, but when it comes to KPSEA the questions are rigid as they are informed by ABCD, so we think that this should begin from grade four to avoid confusion,’’ added Collins Okumu, a teacher.
The KPSEA exams will start with a rehearsal on Friday, 25th October, followed by the main examination, which will run from Monday, 28th October to Wednesday, 30th October this year.
