KPSEA Day 2: State scales down police presence

Police officers deployed to provide security during this year's Kenya Primary School Education Assessment for Grade 6 pupils are staying away from classrooms.

A spot check by the Star across examination centres in Nairobi County revealed that the officers are not allowed to enter the classroom where the pupils are writing the tests.

The pupils are writing the tests freely with only invigilators interacting with them in the classrooms as police officers providing security within the compound.

This is unlike in the past when the government deployed at least two police officers to guard KCPE and KSCE candidates in the classrooms as they sat the exams.

The decision to scale down police presence in the classroom is seen as giving pupils a relaxed environment to write their tests without pressure given their age.

The tests are not competitive as they will not be used to place the pupils in the next grade but merely as an assessment to evaluate the learner's learning progress. 

The assessment is being done under the Competency-Based Curriculum with pioneer learners of the CBC now heading to Grade 9 next year.

On Monday, Education Cabinet Secretary Migosi Ogamba said the government will not allow security officers to sit with the young learners in the classrooms as they write their exams.

"The officers will only escort the assessment materials to schools and will not be allowed to enter classrooms where pupils are writing the tests to create a relaxed environment for learners,'' Ogamba said.

The CS spoke when he led government officials in opening the examinations distribution container at the Westlands Sub County headquarters.

KPSEA is organised in two parts: formative and summative tests.

The formative assessment is school-based and is weighed at 60 per cent in every learning area with the learners having already done this part which was marked by their respective teachers.

The teachers then submitted the marks to the Kenya National Examinations Council.

The current tests are summative and involve learners beings assessed by Knec with the score being 40 per cent of the total marks 

KPSEA marks the last examination at the end of the primary circle under the CBC system with learners moving to junior secondary school in Grade 7 in 2025.

Some 1.3 million learners are sitting the KPSEA assessment across the country.