Mass tests for pupils marred by myriad logistical hitches

The national assessment of primary school learners that took off yesterday was marred by delays in downloading and printing test papers.

Head teachers complained about the high internet and printing costs, lack of access to ICT facilities and shortage of funds to administer the week-long assessments.

Schools were expected to have downloaded the test papers from the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) website and printed them by Sunday evening. Head teachers cited a myriad of logistical hitches, however, in a repeat of glitches reported in a similar test last year.

The examinations council has not sent money to schools for downloading and printing the papers, forcing head teachers to use funds meant for other school programmes or print on credit, hoping to offset the bills once they receive the cash.

But according to the Ministry of Education, capitation funds were sent to schools when they opened two weeks ago, with each pupil having been allocated Sh11.54 for assessment and examinations.

The assessment is being administered as a collaboration between Knec, the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education. It is meant to establish the extent of loss of learning in the nine  months that pupils were out of school due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I am going to town to collect the papers and, hopefully, we’ll begin the assessment tomorrow,” a head teacher from Kakamega told the Nation. The assessment is supposed to run until Friday this week. Pupils will not be ranked as the aim is to measure their level of preparedness for learning so that teachers can craft evidence-based intervention measures. They will be assessed on what they have already learnt in previous classes.

“The overarching aim of the assessments is to inform on possible learning gaps among the aforementioned learners during the long closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and suggest interventions to be put in place to address the gaps as learners progress through their second and third terms of the academic year,” states a circular by Knec acting CEO Mercy Karogo.

A similar assessment of Grade 4 and Standard 8 learners was administered in October last year when candidate classes partially reopened.

Bizarre incident

At the time, school heads faced difficulties downloading, printing and uploading the scores onto the Knec website. The two classes will be exempted from this year’s assessment since they have not had interrupted learning.

Standard 8 pupils are also preparing for their KCPE, which they will write in two months’ time between March 22 and 24.

In one bizarre incident, all the schools in Siakago zone of Mbeere North Embu County, failed to start the assessment owing to a logistical hitch. The schools had pooled resources and engaged a printer for their exam papers. The printer, however, had not delivered the papers by yesterday afternoon.

There will be more assessments for Grade 3 learners similar to the one undertaken by the current Grade 4 last year.