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Ouko noted that there was also limited capacity amongst teachers to develop own authentic assessment tools.
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He said this makes it difficult for learners to respond to the authentic assessment tasks developed by the Knec.
Image: KNEC/X
Kenya National Examination Council Senior Examinations Officer Samuel Ouko has revealed several challenges the agency faced while administering the Grade 6 KPSEA assessments in 2022 and 2023.
Ouko noted that among the challenges Knec faced included a limited capacity of teachers to interpret the assessment scores and reports to learners and other stakeholders.
"We also had a high rate of absenteeism of learners during assessment," Ouko said.
He spoke on Wednesday in Nairobi during the inaugural Annual Symposium on Competency-Based Assessment.
Ouko noted that there was also limited capacity among teachers to develop their authentic assessment tools.
He said this makes it difficult for learners to respond to the authentic assessment tasks developed by the Knec.
"We need to build the capacity of teachers so that that they are able to develop their assessment tools," he said.
Additionally, Ouko said there was inadequate technical staff or trained teachers in some subjects, specifically Arts and Craft, Music, Home Science and Hindu Religious Education.
The Knec official also noted that some learners registered at Grade 3 was more than those who sat KPSEA at Grade 6.
He questioned where some learners disappeared after being registered at Grade 3.
"Schools be keen to register learners at Grade 3 as spelt out in assessment regulations," he said.
Further, Ouko explained that most people think of KPSEA as the Grade 6 summative assessment only, yet there is also the KPSEA formative assessment which is usually done at the school level from Grade 4 and 5.
"KPSEA is an umbrella of two assessments, the formative and the summative one at Grade 6," he said.
Ouko said the Grade 6 assessment is meant to monitor the progress of a learner and provide feedback to help in policy making.
"Through KPSEA, we can identify the gaps and provide the suggested remedies that teachers in classrooms can use to improve the instructions and performance of our learners," he said.
He noted that at the KPSEA summative level, Grade 6, learners are expected to respond individually to the multiple choice questions that are given.
At the KPSEA formative level, learners are expected to respond to tasks individually or collaboratively. Ouko said this level aims to nurture creativity by using locally available material for learning.
Following the assessments, Knec can evaluate the outcomes using four performance levels.
At Level 4, the learner is said to be exceeding expectations. The learner is said to have exemplary competencies beyond the requirements of the targeted curriculum outcome.
At Level 3, the learner is meeting expectations and can fulfil the requirements of the given task.
At Level 2, the learner is approaching expectations and exhibits some of the competencies required by the task.
At Level 1, the learner's performance is below expectations. The learner at this level exhibits low achievement of the competencies assessed.
Ouko noted that after the KPSEA summative assessment, three of the reports were issued.
"We have the individual learner report, then we issue the school specific report and the national report which we are doing today," he said.