KCPE exams off to a smooth start

This year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams started smoothly on Tuesday morning.

Distribution of examination materials across the county began in the wee hours.

Head teachers and security officers thronged various collection points to pick up the day's papers — English Language and English Composition.

A total of 1,003,556 pupils who registered for the exams write their tests from Tuesday in 28,566 centres.

The candidates sit Science, Kiswahili Lugha and Kiswahili Insha on Wednesday and end with Social Studies and Religious Studies on Thursday.

Some of the new changes in the examinations include introduction of a candidate’s photo on answer sheets.

The index number of the pupils has also been printed on answer sheets.

The government acquired 20 modern scanning machines expected to improve speed and accuracy when processing the examinations.

During the three-day examination period, no politician will be allowed in the schools.

At Olympic primary school in Kibra constituency the KCPE exams are going on well having started slightly late because of the huge number of candidates.

The school has two examination centers; Olympic primary school which has 530 candidates out of the 532 who registered for the exams.

The two, who are missing, registered but disappeared and according to the school head teacher Mr Caleb Ochieng, "they disappeared and nobody knows where they are or went to."

Palm Olive Academy, a private institution, which is also undertaking its exams at Olympic primary school has 32 candidates.

Roselyne Aligula, one of the four supervisors overseeing the exams, most of the candidates were dropped by their parents to school today morning owing to the uneasy calm in the area that has been the epic centre of running battles between the police and residents for the last two weeks.

The tension has been fuelled by yesterday's announcement and declaration of president Kenyatta as the winner in the fresh presidential election of October 26.

"There is still uncertainty in the area and the parents and guardians did not want to take chances and that's why they decided to bring their children. They are also prepared to pick them once they are done with today's papers," Ms Aligula said.

She also noted that they had to counsel the candidates before they sat their exams "because they were so terrified by the unfolding political events."

Mr Ochieng also noted that there is enough deployment of police to ensure that the exams are not interrupted.

Additional reporting by David Mwere