KUPPET Gives KNEC Ultimatum to Pay 40,000 KCSE, KCPE Examiners
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has given the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) a two-week ultimatum to pay examiners who marked the 2022 examinations.
Kuppet has threatened to mobilize its members to occupy Mitihani House if Knec fails to pay the more than 40,000 examiners who completed the marking of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in January.
Kuppet’s ultimatum also highlighted low rates for marking and poor working conditions that have remained unaddressed for long.
Knec is responsible for the deployment of teachers to invigilate and supervise national examinations and later mark them.
The council has been allocated over Sh5 billion for the administration of national examinations in the 2023/2024 financial year, but it requested Sh6,847 billion, meaning it will have a deficit of Sh1,823 billion.
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates will sit their examination this year and will be the last to sit the KCSE in five years as the competency-based curriculum is fully implemented in both primary and secondary schools.
The examinations will be replaced by school-based assessments, which are administered within the regular school timetable. Registration for the 2023 national examinations is currently ongoing, and the deadline for the exercise is March 30.
Knec has urged candidates who have not collected their certificates since 2001 to do so, as there are 1,920 uncollected certificates for the KCPE and 2,841 for KCSE.
In response to the Mang’u incident where some teachers boycotted the marking of CRE Paper One at St Francis Girls High School in Kiambu County, TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia urged teachers to be patriotic while undertaking the exercise.
She said that as teachers, it is a mark of honor and respect to be identified and recommended for the examining exercise, and they should shun any attempts to put their interests before the thousands of candidates whose future they determine through the marking.
Overall, Kuppet’s ultimatum highlights the perennial problem of delays in payment of allowances to examiners and the poor working conditions they face, which have remained unaddressed for long.
It also sheds light on the impending changes in Kenya’s education system, which will replace the national examinations with school-based assessments.
KUPPET Gives KNEC Ultimatum to Pay 40,000 KCSE, KCPE Examiners
