Grade four, class eight exams postponed to Wednesday

Grade four and class eight exams which were meant to kick off today have been postponed to Wednesday due to the Mashujaa Day celebrations on Tuesday.

A circular to all headteachers from the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has confirmed.

“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to inform you that due to the Mashujaa Day celebrations on October 20, the date for administration of learning assessment tools has changed,” Knec acting Chief Executive Mercy Karogo said in a memo.

According to the memo, the exams will now take place from Wednesday, October 21 to Monday, October 26.

The exams are meant to assess whether the students can remember what they had learnt before schools were closed on March 15. The tests will also act as the end of term one exams.

Knec has asked students not to panic as the tests are just assessments.

“Assessments are part of the Global Partnership for Education grant by the government to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on education systems and help in recovery,” Dr Karogo said.

The same tactic was used to test grade three students last year.

There have been a lot of public uproars that students are not ready to take examinations keeping in mind that most public schools did not engage in any online learning. Although the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) was broadcasting daily lessons, teachers complained that they did not meet the needs of learners.

However, students in private schools are a step ahead as they continued with their syllabus online.

Nonetheless, the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha asked all schools to resume the syllabus from where they left in March this year. Knec has released an assessment timetable and guidelines on how to administer the tests.

“Teachers will upload the scores onto the Knec portal using the guidelines provided by Knec,” Dr Karogo said.

KICD have also set timelines on when each topic should be covered.

“In the present circumstances, the key concern would be that all prescribed content is satisfactorily covered. Schools and teachers will be free to employ various creative ways to cover the prescribed content,” the KICD Director Charles Ochieng’ said.

Featured Image: Nation Africa.