It's not fair for learners to sit the KCPE or KCSE exams when they are sick or have just delivered "because they are not in the right frame of mind to do exams".
That's the view of the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association. It wants the Education ministry to come up with a clear policy on managing heavily pregnant learners, and those who have just given birth, as well as sick candidates during the national exams.
Kessha chair Indimuli Kahi on Wednesday said it is unfair to learners who fall sick or deliver during KCSE or KCPE exams to be required to sit the exam.
“Knec should consider this issue seriously because whereas our policy in schools is to keep these learners in school, there is no clear policy on how to handle these cases,” Kahi said.
He spoke during the third day of the 15th Kepsha Annual Delegates’ Conference at the Kenya School of Revenue Administration grounds in Mombasa.
Kahi said the Kenya National Exam Council should consider issuing supplementary papers to candidates in such cases.
The Machakos High School principal said he is aware students might be tempted to feign sickness should the request be granted.
However, he said there are mechanisms to confirm whether a student is truly sick or not.
At the same time, Kahi called for a truce between the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers, who have been at loggerheads overrunning the sector.
The two have had a bitter falling out, leading to the TSC walking out of the Kepsha conference after Knut was allowed to address the headteachers.
“We need calmness in January,” Kahi said.
He was responding to a thinly veiled strike threat by Knut, whose secretary general Wilson Sossion on Monday asked that the TSC and the Education ministry meet the union and other stakeholders before Christmas "to avoid disruption in January”.
On Wednesday, Kahi said uncertainties in the education sector are always disruptive.
Education CS George Magoha on Tuesday dismissed the olive branch extended by Sossion to the ministry and the TSC, saying the gesture is not sincere.
“Before you talk of an olive branch, go and listen to the vitriol from whoever spoke here,” Magoha said after officially opening the conference.
“After you have listened to that speech, do you think they want to bury the hatchet?” he asked.
Edited by R.Wamochie
