The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has come up with a state of the art Educational Assessment Resource Centre (EARC) meant to improve educational assessment standards by offering training and capacity-building initiatives, with a target of transforming assessments to enhance education quality, equity and inclusion.
The EARC will help teachers, school administrators, curriculum developers and policy makers, assessment officers and education consultants, examiners, and researchers, with essential skills in assessment, psychometrics, competency-based education, and research; with major aim of fostering excellence and innovation in educational evaluation and ensuring alignment with modern pedagogical practices and policy frameworks.
According to KNEC, the Resource Centre will be launched tomorrow July 4, 2025 by the Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok at the council’s headquarters at New Mitihani House in Nairobi’s South C, with several Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from examination boards in the East Africa region and representatives of KNEC’s international partners – British Council, National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and UK’s Department for International Development also attending the launch.
The EARC will also provide professional development opportunities for educators and examiners, standardization and best practices in test development and marking, foster research and data-driven decision-making in educational assessment, and contribute to quality assurance in educational assessments and examinations.
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It will majorly focus on Professional Development in Assessment Practices, Competency-Based Assessment training, Psychometrics and Data Analysis, Item Writing and Test Development, Standardization and Quality Assurance in Marking, Education Research and Policy Analysis, and Demystifying Educational Assessments both in leadership perspective and promoting parental engagement and empowerment.
The Resource Centre, which is equipped with modern training halls, simulation rooms, and digital infrastructure, will offer training in Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) which will train participants in designing, implementing, and evaluating CBA aligned with the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC); Test Construction which will cover different Item Formats, Test Development Principles, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Inclusion/Accessibility.
This kind of training will equip participants with foundational knowledge and practical skills in designing high quality test items and assessments that align with competency-based and traditional models, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility.
It will also offer training in Psychometrics and Data Analysis in Assessment which will provide insights in fundamental skills in psychometrics and data-driven assessment methodologies to enhance test validity and reliability, and Marking Process and Standardization training which will equip examiners and educators with effective grading techniques, ensuring fairness, consistency, and reliability in marking.
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Other training areas include: Quality Assurance and Validation which covers Item Metadata Categorization, Peer Item Review Processes, and Statistical Analysis meant to enhance reliability and validity of educational assessments through standardized quality assurance processes and data-driven validation techniques; Innovative and Alternative Assessments which covers Alternative Assessments and the Use of Graphics in Items meant to explore innovative assessment strategies, including CBAs and the use of visual elements to enhance test design and engagement.
Assessment Reporting and Feedback which will cover Reporting Assessment Feedback and Data-Driven Decision-Making aimed to develop skills in analyzing and reporting assessment results to inform policy, instructional improvements, and learner progress tracking; Data for Foundational learning which will be Assessment Policy and Choices in Assessment geared towards developing skills in analyzing and reporting assessment results to inform policy, and instructional improvements.
Demystifying Educational Assessments in a Leadership Perspective with a soul purpose to equip Heads of Institutions with a practical understanding of how assessments are developed, validated, and used to improve learning outcomes and school performance. This kind of training will target Principals and Deputy Principals, Heads of Departments (HODs), Curriculum Coordinators, and School Assessment Leads.
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In efforts to improve parental engagement as stipulated under the new curriculum, KNEC has further developed a training course-Demystifying Educational Assessments: Promoting Parental Engagement and Empowerment – meant to help parents understand how educational assessments are designed, validated, and interpreted, enabling them to better support their children’s academic journey.
This training will be delivered through a half-day community engagement seminar featuring simple explanations, visual aids, question and answers sessions, and take-home resources. It will basically target parents and guardians of learners at all school levels, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members, and Community education stakeholders.
According to KNEC, all the trainings at its EARC will be aligned with national and international assessment frameworks with the training programmes being benchmarked against international assessment standards, ensuring relevance and competitiveness, with those who will be attending benefiting from real-time access to anonymized national assessment datasets for practical, hands-on analysis and validation exercises.
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Participants will also receive nationally recognized certificates that enhance professional credibility and advancement, and further enhance collaborations and partnerships backed by its strong linkages with global and regional education bodies, universities, and research institutions to enrich content and delivery.
It will further give teachers and other participants’ access to a rich repository of curated tools, test item banks, frameworks, guidelines, and research materials to support best practices in assessment development and evaluation, ICT Integration that is E-Assessment, and Expert-Led Training Courses facilitated by seasoned KNEC professionals, psychometricians, and researchers.
By Roy Hezron
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