If you've just given birth — and it's time to sit the national KPE or KCSE exam — what do you do?
Today, if you're registered for the exam and you just can't do it, for childbirth or any other reason, a snakebite perhaps, you have to wait a year and try again.
Some girls, superwomen, who have just given birth manage to take the exam — they're under tight security to prevent cheating. There are many newspaper stories when they manage to score adequate or good marks.
Their marks are probably not as high as they would have been had they not just undergone childbirth and their hormones were far outside the normal, pre-pregnant range. They might have qualified for better schools.
Other pupils and students for one reason or another are not physically able to take the exam.
That situation has caused a lot of hardship and complaints.
However, a proposal by the Secondary School Heads Association and seen by the Star suggests an alternate but equivalent examination that could be taken when the student is adjudged well enough.
They would be exempted from the regular exam and not penalised.
The proposal has been prompted by the hundreds of girls who are heavily pregnant or have just given birth.
It's at a very early stage.
In Kenya, KCPE and KCSE examinations are conducted between October and December.
The proposal argues that once a doctor declares a person requires hospitalisation, then the doctor has judged that the person is not in his or her best senses and not fit to take long exams.
Kessha chairman Indimuli Kahi on Saturday declined to answer questions on the nature of the proposals but said it was necessary to audit the management of the exams
He said some of the proposals had already been sent to the secretariat of the Kenya National Examination Council for discussion and feedback.
The proposal comes at a time the government is implementing 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school.
The government is also keen to ensure that everyone can access a form of higher education with the latest push to have TVET institutions turning out students with highly marketable skills.
Akello Misori, secretary general of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, called the proposal long overdue and said it would ensure equity in examination administration.
“At the moment, there is a maze of rules and regulations relating to the ways in which students take their national examination, and what [score] you get characterises the institution you will go to. The proposal will make things simpler and more transparent for students,” Misori said told the Star.
Issues regarding examinations, he said, must be taken seriously especially those on sick candidates who are forced to sit the examinations from the hospital beds.
“Time has come to audit everything pertaining to examinations,” he said
He urged Kenya National Examination Council to explore the possibility of having supplementary and special examinations for the affected candidates.
(Edited by V. Graham)
