Education Review Team Proposes Retention of KNEC Exams.
The leaners will now scramble for higher grades just like in the 8-4-4 system.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms(PWPER) has proposed the retention of national examinations under the Competency Based curriculum (CBC).
This would be a radical departure as the initial plan was to have CBC focus mainly on skills and competencies.
The net effect is that pupils and students will still scramble for better scores in national examinations as is the case currently under the 8-4-4 system.
CBC had been tipped to overhaul this.
In the draft report by the PWPER, the number of subjects studied under CBC would be reduced.
This would drastically ease the learners’ burden following public uproar.
The initial proposals that school-based assessments constitute 60 per cent with only 40 per cent left for national examinations is also proposed to be will be reversed.
Primary school learners will have to fight for 60 per cent in national examinations administered in Grade 9.
The learners will only score a maximum of 40 per cent in school-based assessments.
The move would effectively reverse an initial plan to ease pressure on national examinations under CBC.
Learners in Senior Schools –Grade 12- will have to scramble for 70 per cent in national examinations, with only 30 per cent spared for school-based assessments.
At the end of primary school-Grade 6- learners will sit the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment to monitor learners’ progress at the end of Grade 6.
The Grade Six assessment will not determine whether or not the learner will proceed to junior secondary school.
At junior and senior secondary levels the final assessment will be ad ministered by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC).
The team has proposed that Knec be renamed the Kenya National Assessment Council.
At grade nine, the end of junior secondary, the learners will sit a final assessment just like KCPE under 8-4-4.
However, it will make up 60 per cent of their final score; the remaining 40 per cent will be from assessments at the end of Grades 7 and 8, each making up 20 per cent of their final mark.
The cumulative result will give the learner their final score and will be pivotal in determining where they will join senior secondary school.
This will be a departure from the previous arrangement that dictated that the final assessment would carry only 40 per cent of the final mark.
At the same time, the remaining 60 would be fetched from the classroom assessments.
At Grade 12, the end of Senior secondary school, the students will also take a summative examination similar to KCSE.
This will carry 70 per cent of their final mark; the remaining 30 per cent will be from the School Based Assessment and competencies they have portrayed.
