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HomeEDUCATIONGovernment to Abolish SMS Results Platform for National Exams

Government to Abolish SMS Results Platform for National Exams

Government to Abolish SMS Results Platform for National Exams

The government has stated that it will abolish the SMS network through which applicants receive their national examination results.

While testifying before the National Assembly Education Committee Basic Education, Belio Kipsang stated that they would implement a more effective, free-of-charge system.

Kipsang mentioned that they are in the process of establishing systems that will rely on the resources provided, and these resources will be accessible to candidates without any associated charges.

After releasing the results, the ministry typically offers a designated number where candidates and their guardians can send the candidate’s index number to receive the results through SMS at a charge of Sh25 per message.

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The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), through its CEO David Njeng’ere, acknowledged issues faced by service providers in importing data from Microsoft Excel into their database when addressing delays in results distribution at the recently finished release of KCPE results via the SMS platform.

CS Ezekiel Machogu found that the issue with the SMS platform results was due to the Service Provider truncating data, leading to the omission of crucial information.

Machogu informed the MPs that there was a data misalignment between Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language. Kenya Sign Language marks were presented as Kiswahili marks.

This also had an impact on English, Kiswahili, and Social Studies. These are disciplines in which a candidate’s subject grade is determined by combining more than one paper.

These errors were caused by configuration difficulties with the interface used to get results data from the service provider’s database.

The CS highlighted that, while the Council selected SMS as an additional service for conveying examination results, it is optional for parents.

ALSO READ: CS Machogu Stands Firm on KCPE Results’ Credibility Despite 1,935 Flagged Errors

‘‘The SMS results are not official results. The platform is only meant to provide ease of access to the results; it does not replace the requirement to obtain the official results,’’ Machogu said.

The CS maintains that the KNEC results supplied to schools are an accurate picture of students’ achievement.

Machogu clarified that in the current year, the SMS platform messages revealed discrepancies in assigning different grades to identical marks.

However, he emphasized that no such irregularities existed in the official results displayed on the KNEC portal and in the printouts dispatched to schools.

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Government to Abolish SMS Results Platform for National Exams

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