CBC Pioneer’s Challenges On First National Assessment Tests.
The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) administered School-Based Assessments to Grade 4 students across the country on Monday, marking a significant milestone in the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The School-Based Assessment is scheduled to take place from January 31 to February 4, 2022, with schools gaining access through the KNEC Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) portal.
The assessment, which is expected to account for 20% of their final grade point average at the end of Grade Six, will be administered and graded by their teachers.
This will be the theory portion of the assessment because the learners took practical and project-based tests between October and December of last year.
The assessment test involves written tests provided to learners by the Kenya National Examinations Council.
The tests are uploaded on their portal and are to be downloaded and administered to learners.
This will be the theory portion of the assessment because the learners took practical and project-based tests between October and December of last year.
The final test, which will account for 40% of the total and will be supervised by KNEC, will take place between November 28 and December 1.
In Most counties, pupils started the tests yesterday with teachers maintaining that they had adequately prepared the pupils for the national tests.
In Nairobi, several headteachers expressed confidence that, unlike in the past, the students are at ease while taking the exams.
According to Johnson Nzioka, Chairman of the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association, some schools have experienced delays in downloading the materials.
“Some of the schools have large populations and downloading a bulk of the work takes time to produce enough copies for the children,” Nzioka explained.
Another issue, he claims, is the cost of producing enough materials for the students.
Nzioka explained that promises of internet connectivity have been made not only outside of Nairobi but also within the city, despite the fact that some of them are not even connected to a power supply.
Kakamega North Knut chairman Simon Ondeyo claims that teachers were having sleepless nights due to the assessment tests.
“Schools don’t have money to administer CBC exams yet teachers are forced to download the exams and parents are not willing to part with money. The circular issued by Education Ministry not to send children away for school levies is burdening most schools,” Ondeyo noted.
He requested that the Ministry release funds to aid in the implementation of the CBC curriculum.
Meanwhile, Kipruto Kimosop, a Mochongoi ward Member of the County Assembly, expressed concern that learners in the Lomoiywet area would be unable to sit for their exams due to insecurity in the area.
Learning was hampered at Kapkechir primary and secondary schools, Tuiyotich primary and secondary schools, Karne primary and secondary schools, Kasiela primary and secondary schools, and Sinoni primary and secondary schools.
According to Area Assistant Chief Stephen Lobeles, an armed herder attacked people at Tuiyotich Primary School, but no one was hurt.
Poor network coverage hampered examination administration in some parts of Nyanza.
Some schools in Homa Bay County did not begin exams as planned yesterday due to network congestion, which hampered the downloading of exam papers.
Teachers in some areas had to travel more than 30 kilometres to cyber cafes to download the exam.
Headteacher John Omollo of Sing’enge Primary School in Ndhiwa Sub-county said he travelled more than 20 kilometres to Ndhiwa town to download the examination early Monday morning.
However, by 2 p.m., he had only downloaded half of the exams.
According to him, continuous assessment has been effective. He stated that they are on track and that no cases of schools failing to upload grades had been reported to his office.
Grade 5 students at Bungoma DEB were unable to write their exams because the papers arrived late.
Tobias Khisa, the school’s principal, said that the affected students will take their exams tomorrow.
Learners in Grades 2 and 3 had no problems writing their tests yesterday.
Khisa stated that they were having difficulty downloading the assessment tests that the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) had uploaded to the CBA portal over the weekend.
Several schools, however, were unable to reveal their plans to the media.
They stated that they require permission from the Teachers Service Commission to reveal what is going on.
The exams, according to KNEC, will not determine whether a learner is promoted to the next class because the transition is automatic.
The exercise will take place in a regular classroom setting and will count for 20% of the overall score.
This year will include four terms, two KCPE exams, two KCSE exams, and a KCPE-equivalent assessment for the CBC pioneer class.
Also Read:
Learners who entered Grade 4 last year will be the first cohort of the 2-6-6-3 system to transition to junior secondary school (Grade 7) in 2023.
In the same year, 1.3 million students taking the second-to-last KCPE exam, currently in Std 6, will be promoted to Form One under the 8-4-4 system.
This brings the total number of students expected to enter secondary school in the first year of transition to 2.6 million.
CBC Pioneer’s Challenges On First National Assessment Tests.
