The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has announced that it will start administering this year’s 2023 Competency Based Assessment (CBA) for Grade 3 to Grade 5 learner and those in Junior Secondary School (JSS) at Grade 7 as well as those in Pre-Vocational Level from June.

Grade 3 learners following the age based and those with special needs who follow the stage-based education structures in the new Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) will be doing the Kenya Early Years Assessment (KEYA) and Kenya Foundation Level Education Assessment (KFLEA) respectively in June.

In a circular dated April 17, 2023, KNEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. David Njengere told all the Sub-County Directors of Education (SCDEs), Headteachers of Primary Schools who are also Heads of JSS and those from Special Needs Primary Schools who also Heads Pre-Vocational Level that the Council will be uploading on its portal the assessment tools for KEYA and KFLEA, and School Based Assessment (SBA) for Grades 4 and 5, Grade 7 and Pre-Vocational level.

He has also advised the Headteachers to only seek assistance from the SCDEs in case of any challenges of password for reset in order to access their respective CBA portals to download the materials and upload the marks.

“Any school that will have password challenges should contact their respective Sub-County Director of Education for resetting of the password. Schools will be expected to administer the assessment tools, score and upload the assessment outcomes of all learners on the CBA portal,” directed Dr. Njengere in the Circular.

According to the Circular, Grade 3, special needs and learners with disabilities at Foundation Level will be accessed on June 5, 2023 with the last date (deadline) where headteachers will be required to upload the scores on the KNEC CBA portal will be August 11, 2023.

Their Integrated Learning Assessment  (ILA) tools will include those for regular learners, hearing and visually impairment, physical disabilities and SNE Foundation Level; which are supposed to be scored by August 11, 2023 in the next coming term.

For Grade 4 and 5 the subjects with project, practical and performance tasks which are: Agriculture, Art and Craft, Music, Science and Technology, Social Studies, Home Science and Physical Health Education (PHE); Headteachers of both  and Physical Health Education (PHE); Headteachers of both  and Physical Health Education (PHE); Headteachers of both schools that is regular and SNE will access the tools on July 10, 2023 and will have until August 11, 2023 to upload the scores on the KNEC CBA portal.

The headteachers will further access the tools for written tests for Grade 3 on October 2, 2023 and will upload the scores in the portal on October 26, 2023 as deadline. The learners at this level will be assessed on Mathematics and English Activities, and the tools will include for regular learners, hearing and visually impaired and physical disabilities.

Those with special needs following the stage based structure at SNE Foundation Level their Headteachers will access the tools on October 2, 2023 and will have until October 26, 2023 to upload the scores. Their written tests will involve Activities of Daily Living and Communication, Social and Pre-Literacy Skills.

Grades 4 and 5 will have their written tests in October which will involve Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Kenya Sign Language (KSL), Science and Technology, PHE, Agriculture, Home Science, Social Studies, Art and Craft and Religious Education which involves Christian, Islamic and Hindu.

Headteachers will have till October 26, 2023 to upload scores

The headteachers will access the tools from the CBA KNEC portal on October 2, 2023 and will have until October 26, 2023 to upload the scores, while Grade 7 the Headteachers will access the tools from the portal on July 3, 2023 and they will upload the scores by August 11, 2023.

However, this will only involve the tools for subjects with projects, practical and performance tasks which include: Performing Arts, Visual Arts, English, Home Science, Integrated Science, Health Education, Physical Education and Sports (PES) and Religious Education (CRE, IRE and HRE).

Those for written test will be accessed on October 2, 2023 while the marks need to be uploaded by October 23, 2023 on the portal same us those for performing tasks in SNE Prevocational Level.

The subjects in the written tests for Grade 7 are: Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Kenya Sign Language, Integrated Science, PES, Agriculture, Social Studies, Computer Science, Performing and Visual Arts, Business Studies, Life Skills Education, Pre-technical and Career Education and Religious Education.

For Pre-Vocational Level the subjects are Communication Social and Literacy Skills, Religious Education, Daily Living Skills, Environment Activities, Hygiene Nutrition and Safety, Mathematical Activities, Music and Movement, PHE, Pre-Vocational Skills and Social Studies.

The Circular which was copied to Director, Quality Assurance and Standards in the Ministry of Education; all Regional and County Directors of Education will see KNEC providing the assessment tools in two formats of PDF (Portable Document Format) and digital format through its portal.

For PDF schools will be required to log in the CBA portal using their respective log in credentials which are username and password, access the tools in the [PDF] format and then download; in order to give them to learners in either print format, projected on the screen or written on the board.

Depending on the format adopted, learners may write their answers on the question paper or on the provided writing materials by the schools.

The tools in the Digital format on the other hand will be accessed by individual learners whereby they will be required to log onto the portal using their respective assessment numbers.

Upon logging in, learners will access the tools directly through the digital devices such as the Digital Learning Programme (DLP) tablets available in schools. Learners will then be expected to give their responses (answers) on writing materials provided by the schools.

According to KNEC, the two formats will be displayed on its CBA portal dashboard using different buttons, advising the SNE teachers to only access the SBA tools for Foundation Level on PDF format only.

“Schools are encouraged to allow learners access the tools directly using the DLPs or any other available digital devices such as desktop computers and laptops. This will help schools save on printing cost. Those who may have challenges with the direct access may opt for PDF format,” said Dr. Njengere.

Teachers will be required to assess the learners as they undertake the performance-based tasks and score them using the guidelines provided in the tool, while headteachers have been requested by KNEC to keep all records and evidence generated from the assessments.

Further, the KNEC boss has advised the teachers that the materials required for the assessments should be obtained from the immediate school environment or improvised as much as possible.

“The assessment tools with coloured images should be printed in colour or loaded on the digital devices available in the school. The learners should answer the questions using separate answer sheets provided by the school. In schools where the digital devices are inadequate, the assessments can be done in shifts,” instructed Dr. Njengere.

By Roy Hezron

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