By Roy Hezron
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has dismissed fears of mass failure in next month’s national examinations, saying candidates are well prepared for the tests.
Speaking at Mukuru Kwa Njenga Primary School recently, Magoha criticised a Kenya National Examination Council report which showed that most candidates had failed in recent assessment tests.
“The tests were done more than 12 weeks ago. The learners have been in school since then and they are going to be there for another six weeks before they sit exams,” said the CS.
Magoha pointed out that the assessment tests were only meant to establish the impact of the long closure of schools on learners.
“This was a school-based assessment that was administered and learners given feedback immediately. The role of KNEC was only to provide the assessment items and process the national report,” he said.
The CS said he was confident the situation had improved considerably since then.
“I am confident the learning interventions by teachers have helped to recover the loss detected in the assessments. I am confident the results of the KCPE will reflect much improved performance,” he said.
KNEC’s report raised concerns about the preparedness of a majority of examination candidates whose learning was disrupted by a nine-month break due to the pandemic.
According to the report released on February 1, majority of the KCPE candidates failed to attain the minimum pass mark of 50 per cent. The report showed that mathematics and languages gave the lowest results.
About 1.1 million candidates are expected to sit KCPE examinations beginning March 22.
