•On Saturday, the Kenya National Examinations Council portal was opened for schools to download the tests.
•Knec posted assessment tools to the Competency-Based Assessment portal which will be accessible from January 31 to February 4.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
The Grades 3 and 5 assessments that were scheduled to be administered on Monday did not start.
A spot check by the Star reveals most of the schools are yet to administer the exams.
Schools with many students and unreliable internet have challenges downloading the tests.
On Saturday, the Kenya National Examinations Council portal was opened for schools to download the tests.
Knec posted assessment tools to the Competency-Based Assessment portal which will be accessible from January 31 to February 4.
The exam body directed school heads to upload the assessment results to the portal by February 21.
Nairobi Primary School headteacher Munyao Mwendo said all is set for students to sit exams.
He said this assessment consists of theory-based exams and is not practical.
“We are prepared for this and we are in the process of downloading and compiling the exams after which we will give out to the pupils,” Mwendo said.
Grade 3 learners were assessed in integrated areas from October to December last year.
This year, the end-of-grade assessment will be based on Mathematics and English activities.
The school deputy headteacher Kennedy Onyango said the assessment is flexible, the exams have no time limit.
He said due to the high number of students in the school, photocopying and printing of exam copies is still ongoing.
“We have to print copies for almost two hundred students per grade but we are almost done,” Onyango said.
However, several schools could not reveal their preparations to the media.
They said they need permission from the Teachers Service Commission to disclose what is going on.
“I have not been allowed to tell you whether we have started giving out the exams or not,” a headteacher in Nairobi told the Star.
KNEC said the exams will not determine if a learner is promoted to the next class because the transition is automatic.
The exercise will be carried out in a regular classroom setting and will account for 20 per cent of the overall score.
The final assessment, which accounts for 40 per cent, will be held between November 28 and December 1.
This year will have four terms, two KCPE exams, two KCSE exams and an assessment equal to KCPE-for the CBC pioneer class.
Learners who enrolled in Grade 4 last year will transit to junior secondary school (Grade 7) as the first cohort of the 2-6-6-3 system in 2023.
In the same year, 1.3 million learners sitting the second-last KCPE exam, currently in Std 6, will transit to Form One under the 8-4-4 system.
This brings a total of 2.6million students who are expected to join secondary school in the first year of transition.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris