The Kenya National Examinations Council, KNEC, has asked school heads to provide it with assessment results of Grade 4 learners.
KNEC's CEO Mercy Karogo, on Tuesday, March 2, released guidelines on how the results should be posted on its Competency-Based-Assessment (CBA) portal.
Karogo said that the results will form 20 percent of the final Competency-Based-Curriculum (CBA) test when the students reach Grade 6. Grade 4 and Class 8 candidates sat the exams in October 2020 when schools partially reopened.
The system is part of the continuous assessments which students will undertake through their time in school. The assessments will cumulatively count for how they progress to the next level of education.
The exams they sit in Grade 4, Grade 5, and 6 are expected to account for 60 percent of the national assessment at the end of Grade 6.
"In this regard, schools are expected to submit assessment outcomes of learners, who are currently in Grade 4 to KNEC.
"The council will upload the 2020 Grade 4 age-based and intermediate level stage-based assessment tools by March 17, for schools to access and use," Karogo said.
KNEC raised concerns over the mass failure of Grade 4 and Class 8 candidates, saying that the students were not yet ready to sit national exams in March 2021.
Education CS George Magoha acknowledged that the results of the assessment were regrettable but assured that the ministry would ensure the students improved and were ready prior to the exams.
The CS clarified that the assessment by KNEC was only meant to establish the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and school closure in 2020.
“Why contextualize this to say that this test was done yesterday and these excellent kids are going to fail the exams? They are not going to fail as widely as circulated by the media,” Magoha wondered.
