•At least 1.4 million candidates are writing the last KCPE exams under the 8-4-4 curriculum that has been in place since 1985
•The system, which has been criticised for mounting pressure on students for grades, is being replaced with the Competency-Based-Curriculum
Image: FILE
Officials in Kitui have intensified their search for a 17 years-old girl who went missing from their home on Monday morning.
According to police incident report, the girl was supposed to sit her KCPE exams at a primary school in Kitui.
She went missing from their home together with her three months old baby consequently missing her exams.
The incident was reported at Kabati police station and efforts to trace her whereabouts have been begun.
In other incidents reported on the first day of the KCPE/KPSEA exams, three female students are reported to have written their exams in hospital after giving birth.
“One KCPE candidate gave birth today at mother and child hospital Wote in Makueni. She is currently sitting for her exams at the said facility under guard,” the incident report reads.
In another incident, a candidate aged 17 years from one of the schools in Kitui West had to write her exams from the hospital after she gave birth on Sunday.
“She has been assisted well and now sitting for her mathematics paper in the hospital,” the report reads.
In a similar incident reported in Mwingi, one candidate in one of the schools developed labour pains and was rushed to hospital where she delivered safely.
“Arrangements have been made and she is taking her examination at the said facility,” the report says.
However, in a different scenario, a male grade six pupil from Ngumbwa Primary School in Mutitu had to sit his KPSEA exam at Kitui County Referral Hospital having been admitted due to fracture on his legs.
This comes even as reports indicated that 13 inmates from Naivasha GK prison missed out on the examinations on Monday.
The inmates were either released or transferred to other penal institutions with the prison registering a total of 54 candidates for the national exams.
Of the number, twenty one are serving life sentence in the prison that has over 3,000 inmates majority of whom are under the education programme.
According to the officer in charge of the prison Hassan Tari the inmates were all set for exams despite various challenges.
At least 1.4 million candidates are writing the last KCPE exams under the 8-4-4 curriculum that has been in place since 1985.
The system, which has been criticised for mounting pressure on students for grades, is being replaced with the Competency-Based-Curriculum.
The second cohort of candidates is also writing the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) exams under CBC from this morning.