As more than one million pupils prepare to sit their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams beginning Monday, March 22, the learners are hopeful that tests will not be as gruelling.
The candidates who had to stay at home for nine months due to the pandemic, had their hopes dimmed by an assessment earlier in January, which showed that most could not remember what they had learnt over the years.
However, Education CS George Magoha encouraged the learners, noting that the examiners who set the KCPE and KCSE examinations had factored in the disruption to learning brought about by the pandemic.
"Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) is aware that candidates were out of school for long and considered those factors," noted Magoha.
The closure of schools resulted in a disparity as some schools engaged their candidates in e-learning and broadcast lessons by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
However, the scheme left out more than 500,000 children who had little or no access to the media.
Other than a contracted academic year, another group of students will be sitting for the one-of-a-kind exam while heavy with children.
More than 30,000 girls aged 10 to 19 got pregnant in 2020, according to the African Institute For Development Policy.
However, the Ministry of Education is yet to release statistics on teen mothers in schools.
A total of 1,191,725 candidates registered for the KCPE exams in 28,467 stations. This marked a 104,061 increase from 2019 when the exam was last offered.
The ministry has also set new rules for KCPE candidates in the selection process of secondary schools.
In a circular, the ministry directed all primary school headteachers to ensure that the students who will sit for the national exam in March 2021 only chose secondary day institutions near their homes.
