Pioneer Grade 6 learners will sit the inaugural Kenya Primary School Education Assessment under the CBC from November 28.
Some 1.24 million candidates will be assessed and become the first cohort of learners to join Junior Secondary in January 2023 under the competency-based curriculum.
A timetable released by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) indicates candidates will be assessed in five papers for three days until November 30, 2022. Rehearsals will be conducted on November 25.
Mathematics and English will be tackled on the first day followed by Integrated Science (Science and Technology, Agriculture, Home Science and Physical and Health Education) and Kiswahili on the second day.
Candidates will be assessed in Art and Craft, Music and Religious Education on the third and final day in the Creative Art and Social Studies subject.
Unlike in the KCPE exams where candidates are rated out of 100 per cent, the KPSEA will account for only 40 per cent of the final score.
The other 60 per cent will come from the classroom-based continuous assessment tests conducted in Grades 4,5 and 6.
As is with the KCPE exams, answer sheets for the KPSEA will be personalised, meaning every candidate will have an answer sheet for every subject bearing their name and assessment number.
All the questions will have multiple choice answers on the mark sheet and candidates are expected to pick only one correct answer.
“Supervisors and Invigilators should ensure that candidates are issued with personalized mark sheets that bear their correct names and assessment numbers,” KNEC Chief Executive Officer David Njeng'ere said.
Morning sessions will start at 8.30 am with candidates expected to be seated 15 minutes earlier. Latecomers must give a satisfactory reason to the Supervisor.
“Only in exceptional circumstances will a paper be given to any candidate who is late by more than half an hour,” the CEO said.
He reminded candidates and teachers that penalties stipulated under the KNEC Act will be imposed where irregularities will be detected.
Candidates who will be caught committing irregularities in any paper, including being in possession of cell phones or other electronic communication devices, will have their results for the subject cancelled.
“Such a candidate will not be entitled to a result for the subject,” Njeng’ere warned.
“If there is evidence of widespread irregularities in any assessment centre, the assessment results for the whole centre will be cancelled,” he added.
Unlike the 8-4-4 system which prompted learners to memorize answers, the CBC is skills-oriented thus allowing learners to specialise in areas of interest thus promoting inventions and innovations.
Considering that Grade 6 will be replacing the current Class 8 as the transition point to secondary school, KPSEA candidates are expected to be relatively young compared to their KCPE counterparts.
The learners will join Junior secondary in January aged 12 and exit at Grade 9 at 14 years, the age at which 8-4-4 learners normally sit KCPE exams.
Later, they will transition to senior secondary for their Grade 10, 11 and 12 education.
