Knut: Heads won’t collect test papers

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has stepped up its push to have principals and head teachers not collect materials for the national examinations that are set to begin next month.

Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion demanded that heads instead become examination centre managers and be paid by Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec).

On Thursday, Knut met the leadership of the council and put forward its demand.

“We had a very fruitful long meeting with Knec on the matter of the forthcoming exams, especially with respect to heads and principals collecting exam papers,” said Mr Sossion in a statement.

“We made a very strong case against it.” He said Knut recommended recruitment of credible supervisors and invigilators.

“Knec is consulting on our proposal and shall revert in due course,” he added.

Knec’s acting Chief Executive Officer Mercy Karogo could not be reached for comment by press time.

The government has stepped up measures to ensure this year’s examinations are credible — including ensuring teachers who have supervised and invigilated exams in a school twice are deployed to other centres. More than 130,000 teachers will supervise or invigilate.

The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations, for Standard Eight pupils, will run from November 1-3 while Form Four students will sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations from November 7-30.

Last month, Director of Secondary and Tertiary Education Robert Masese said school heads have no option but to collect the examination materials.