Parents have been forced to pay for a national assessment seeking to identify learning gaps that may have occurred during the shutdown of schools.
The government requires school heads to download the test from the Kenya National Examination Council website and print for learners.
The Star has established that the schools have however decided to pass the cost to the parents.
In most schools reached by the Star, learners were asked to provide Sh200 to cater for the test.
“My son was chased from class on Monday morning when he reported without the money. I had to look for the money and send him back,” a parent told the Star.
Nicholas Gathemia, the Kenya Primary School Heads Association chairman, told the Star that schools are incurring huge costs to print the assessment papers as they are available only in soft copy.
He said the government capitation does not cater for the printing costs.
The Education ministry maintains that schools should liaise with subcounty directors of education for production of the test materials.
But the school heads argue the cost of production has been left to them.
“The assessment papers are in soft copy and it is upon the head teacher to know how they will be printed for each learner. This is expensive given no budget has been set aside for it,” one head teacher said.
The assessment comes after 10 months of school shutdown and is administered to about eight million learners.
The school heads lamented about poor internet coverage in some parts of the country as one of the hitches slowing down the exercise.
Unlike conventional examinations, there will be no ranking of learners according to the grades they score.
A circular released by acting Knec chief executive officer Mercy Karogo says the assessments will be administered up to Friday.
The learners’ assessment programme is part of the Sh1.5 billion Global Partnership for Education boost towards the government’s schools reopening preparations.
Under the GPE funding, schools are supposed to be supported to print and administer the assessment tools.
All assessments will be done in schools where teachers will mark and upload the scores onto the Knec portal.
On Monday, Grade 1 to 3 learners were assessed on their reading and counting skills – English, Kiswahili and mathematics.
Those in Standard 5 and 6 were assessed on the grasp of English, Kiswahili, mathematics and science. Pupils in Standard 7 will be assessed in all subjects.
Edited by Henry Makori
