Teachers and transporters who were contracted for national assessments and logistics purposes are reported to have developed cold feet towards the Kenya National Examination Council, KNEC 2025 examination exercises, Education News has established.
According to those who spoke to Education News through phone interview confirmed that they were afraid of the assurance of their job security in the process when the institutions they are manning something fishy happen or even exams leaks.
“I can’t continue offering myself for supervision at secondary school because the exercise is turning risky. I almost lost my job after the school I was supervising was listed amongst those whose results were withheld,” said Gregory Jamenya from Coast region.
Gregory’s fear mirror many of his colleagues who have vowed not to offer themselves for the exercise on the pretext that whenever an exam irregularity occurs, they are left alone even by their unions
The idea of KNEC not increasing supervision, invigilation and transportation allowances was also reported to be one of the major setbacks that made many teachers and transporters not offer themselves for the exercise.
“It is illogical for KNEC to continue offering supervisors and invigilators very old rates yet the cost of transport keeps spiraling,” lamented peter Kahoro, a senior teacher in Kiambu who claimed to have worked with KNEC on exam administration for over ten continuous years.
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Most drivers and teachers claimed that apart from the council’s unwillingness to increase its exam rates, the same body has always delayed in paying what is due for them.
“KNEC has of late been paying us after seven to nine months. They seem to forget that we transporters are in business and we thus require payments after we successfully offer our services”, said Kibet Chesire, a driver from Item in Elgeiyo Marakwet County.
Both Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission officers at the county and subcounty offices are said to be under pressure to ensure that all exams centers have the right number of personnel. Teachers are reported to be implored upon by their bosses to accept the offers as exam officials an incident that to many appears to be rare.
“We’re being compelled to beg our teachers who many claim to have commitments. Some say they are reporting back to college for further studies,” said a TSC field officer from Nyanza region.
The complaint comes after the TSC issued a circular two months ago that stipulated the requirements for this year’s supervisors and invigilators for KPSEA, KJSEA and KCSE. The commission stated that all exam officials must have worked with TSC for not less than 3years. All secondary schools will be supervised by secondary school teachers who will be rotated on weekly basis. KCSE invigilators will be purely drawn from primary schools as KJSEA supervisors be drawn both from primary and junior school teachers.
A total of 1,298,089 KPSEA and 1,130,669 KJSEA candidates will be sitting for national assessments this year. In secondary section, a total of 996,078 candidates will sit for KCSE.
It is reported that the TSC is in the last minute rush to deploy 26,479 supervisors and 125,492 invigilators for both KPSEA and KJSEA assessments across the country for the over 26,000 exam centres. A total of 12,126 supervisors, 54,782 invigilators and 22,247 security personnel are lined up to be deployed for this year’s KCSE exercise. There will be no security personnel for KPSEA and KJSEA assessments. As exam period nears, Education news wishes our teachers a fabulous season.
By Naboth Murunga.
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