Rehearsals for next week’s KPSEA and KJSEA assessments kicked off across the country, with teachers making a list of demands to candidates that are making parents scratch their heads incessantly.
Education News reported that some schools in the North Rift, Western, and Nairobi regions have requested that learners bring clear geometrical sets, sleepers, white socks for girls, neck ties, among other requirements.
“I thought unnecessary requirements ended with KCPE. Some teachers seem to be stuck in the past,” lamented Caro Asige, a parent at one of the public schools that has listed a raft of demands to the parents in Eldoret municipality.
Asige directed his anger at the local education officers for failing to tame what she described as outdated behaviour characterising the 8-4-4 system and its assessment component, KCPE.
In some schools in the Western region, parents were compelled to contribute to tea and lunch for their children.”Unlike KCPE, KPEA and KJSEA don’t extend to the afternoon, so why must I be told to pay for lunch?” quipped Morgan Sore, a parent in Bungoma County.
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The agitated Morgan views this as a way to fleece the already overburdened parents. The exact requirements have been reported in isolated schools in the Nairobi region, where learners are made to remain in school for revision after the day’s assessments.
The Ministry of Education has continued to sensitise all stakeholders about the assessment paradigm inherent in Competency-Based Education.
Since the first KNEC assessment in 2023, the Council has discontinued the practice of having security personnel operate each centre.
The grade six final evaluation also accounted for 60 percent of the final KPSEA score. The initial 40 percent is accumulated from national school-based assessments administered to individual learners in grades 1 to 5.
As assessment season kicks off, it is the clarion call of every parent that their children be given ample time to sit for their assessments. Incidents in which teachers demand a lot to meet exam requirements, contrary to KNEC requirements, should be avoided at all costs.
By Naboth Murunga.
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