As Education CS Ezekiel Machogu settles into office, his first assignment will be a testing moment for the new curriculum.
Machogu will be the first CS to oversee three national examinations.
More than 1.5 million learners in the pioneer cohort are expected to sit the Grade 6 assessments in November.
At the same time, KNEC will be administering two other exams KCPE and KCSE.
Machogu who was unanimously approved by the vetting committee will find a trace of exam cheating to handle at Jogoo House.
“This would mark my first assignment. There shall be no cases of exam cheating. Surveillance must be intense to curb this vice and I must start having discussions with teachers,” he said.
The KCPE exam will run between November 28 and December 1, while the KCSE exam will be done from December 1 to December 23.
A timetable released by the Kenya National Examination Council indicates candidates will be assessed in five papers for three days until November 30. 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, 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 CEO 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.
The former Nyaribari Masaba lawmaker said he intends to front another policy shift in the fast replacement of lost academic certificates.
Machogu said replacing a lost KCSE certificate should not be a tiresome process as is the case currently but should take a maximum of one week for one to be issued with a new copy.
“If we can replace a lost title deed within one week, I don’t see why KNEC cannot replace a certificate in one day,” he said.
Machogu replaced George Magoha who has served since 2018.
