A million to sit national exams

• First intake of pupils under free primary learning started in 2003 to take tests

A total of one million candidates will sit this year’s national examinations.

According to statistics released on Tuesday by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), some 741,507 candidates will sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.

This includes the first group of pupils who joined Standard One when the Free Primary Education programme was introduced in 2003.

Another 356,015 candidates registered for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations this year, 20,000 more than were registered last year, according to the KNEC corporate affairs manager, Mr Ken Ramani.

Last year, 712,579 candidates sat for KCPE.

More boys than girls are registered this year. There are 32,158 more boys than girls in KCPE while the figure stands at 38,651 for KCSE.

The figures, however, paint a grim picture of secondary school enrolment with only half the candidates who sit for KCPE managing to join secondary schools.

Mr Ramani said KNEC had sent out nominal rolls containing registration data for candidates to respective schools for verification.

“Head teachers are expected to check the correctness of the names of their registered candidates,” Mr Ramani said.

However, KCPE candidates will be required to confirm their year of birth.

He said KCSE candidates would be allowed to change their names to those on their birth certificates.

Early this year, the Education ministry introduced birth certificates as a requirement for exam registration to help stop cheating.

Parents were also asked to take part in the verification of names to ensure the registration data of their children was accurate.

Mr Ramani urged all district education officers and provincial directors of education to ensure entry printouts were checked and signed by all head teachers and pupils and were returned to the council by July 30.