KPSEA results will not be used for placement of learners in Junior Secondary Schools - Gov't

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has announced that the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) results will not be used for placement of learners in Junior Secondary Schools.

The KPSEA report will, however, be part of the process of monitoring of learner progress.

This is after President William Ruto directed that the examination not be used to determine the placement of pupils to Junior Secondary School (JSS), as expected, but be used to scrutinise learning progress and provide feedback to education sector players on areas of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that require intervention.

KNEC CEO David Njengere on Wednesday said the exam body will report on KPSEA at three levels; a report on individual learners for the summative assessment, a school-specific report and a national report.

Speaking during the release of the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results in Nairobi, Dr Njengere said the school-specific report will highlight the areas where learners had challenges to guide the administration on the areas for improvement.

“The national report will provide feedback to education stakeholders on areas that require intervention. The report will indicate the proportion of learners at each of the performance levels per subject where perhaps we need to do some interventions,” he added.

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu directed KNEC to upload the KPSEA report on the school portals in January.

"I have directed the Kenyan National Examination Council to upload the report of the assessment on the school portals in January 2023 to enable schools to develop strategies of further learning and teaching," said Machogu.

He termed it useful for the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, the Teacher Service Commission and the Ministry of Education as the government continues with the roll-out of CBC.

 “All these are going to be uploaded on the school portals by 16th of January, 2023,” Njengere said.

A total of 1,287,597 Grade Six pupils sat their KPSEA exams between November 28 and November 30.

In his December 1 directive, President Ruto advised that the junior secondary schools - Grade 7, Grade 8 and Grade 9 - be domiciled in the existing primary schools.

Also present was the Teachers Service Commission CEO, Nancy Macharia, who said the employer will issue a raft of guidelines on the containment of the junior secondary schools within their former primary schools.

“TSC has moved quickly to develop guidelines on staff to handle learners who will be joining grade seven. These guidelines will be released to stakeholders in January,” said Dr. Macharia.

She added that some 9,000 new teachers and 21,550 interns will be posted to various schools countrywide to handle the JSS learners.

On his part, Education Principal Secretary Belle Kipsang said 60,000 teachers have so far been trained to handle the JSS learners, adding that the government will ensure a 100 percent transition.