Marking of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam scripts will begin this week as the test comes to an end on Wednesday.
Basic Education PS Julius Jwan on Friday said marking will be done by teachers contracted by the Kenya National Examination Council.
The exercise will involve at least 27,284 markers and will be conducted in about 40 national schools distributed in the defunct eight regions.
Traditionally, the marking exercise takes a month, if this is anything to go by, the candidates will expect their results somewhere in mid-May.
On Thursday, Teachers Service Commission said it would organise transport to and out of the marking centres.
Special pass
KCSE examination markers will be given special passes allowing them in and out of five counties under lockdown during the marking exercise.
President Uhuru Kenyatta directed cessation of movement in five counties of Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado and Nakuru.
TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia on Monday said the special pass will allow examiners to travel to locations they will be posted for the exercise.
The marking of the exam will involve 27,248 examiners.
Knec data shows that 752,933 candidates were registered to sit this year's KCSE exam in 10,437 centres.
Education CS George Magoha said on Friday that all security measures are in place ahead of the marking process.
The CS also announced that transport arrangements are in place for students travelling in and out of areas where movement is restricted to stem infection of the Covid-19.
Vaccination
Macharia urged the contracted teachers to consider taking the Covid-19 jab to help curb the spread of the virus.
She said the process is rigorous and huge personnel is involved, hence the need for precaution.
This is even as Uhuru last week directed all teachers and support staff, irrespective of their ages, to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Initially, only teachers above 50 were eligible for vaccination.
The directive was made public by CS Magoha during the announcement of the 2020 KCPE exam results, shortly after meeting the President at State House in Nairobi.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers wants the exam agency to raise marking fees for each script by at least Sh50, citing the present harsh economic times.
Kuppet argues that papers like Chemistry Paper 1, Mathematics and English Paper 1 should each be paid at not less than Sh100.
Presently marking each paper attracts between Sh51 to Sh58.