By Obegi Malack
obegimalack@gmail.com
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has announced that both the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Education (KCSE) certificates have been dispatched to schools for collection.
In a notice to students, the national examination body advised students who sat the examinations to collect the certificates from their former schools.
“In case of any conformity, queries should be lodged through KNEC Query Management Information System (QMIS),” part of the statement read.
The KCPE results were released in April 2021. A total of 1,179,192 candidates sat the examination.
The 2020 candidates registered commendable results despite the challenges caused by the Covid-19.
A total of 1,191,616 candidates had registered, but 12,424 did not sit the exams. In 2018, a total of 1,060,711 sat the examination and 1,088,986 in 2019.
The 2020 KCSE results were released in May 2021. A total of 747,171 students sat the examinations after nearly a year of uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The class of 2020 performed comparatively better than their 2019 counterparts. A total of 893 scored grade A plain compared to the 627 in 2019.
There have been many cases of secondary schools withholding KCSE examination certificates because of failure to settle fees arrears. This is against KNEC rules.
Section 10(1) of the Kenya National Examinations Council Act (Cap 225A), the statute that establishes KNEC, is explicit in providing in part that “the functions of the Council shall be to award certificates or diplomas to candidates in such examinations… such certificates or diplomas shall not be withheld from the candidate by any person or institution.”
The law does not contemplate any circumstances in which schools can decline to release certificates on account of outstanding fees.
