Lack of birth certificates hamper listing of pupils for test

Teachers in Nakuru County are facing difficulties in registering Grade Three pupils for the Kenya Early Years Assessment.

Some head teachers on Friday said they were having a rough time in getting birth certificates from parents who have either separated or divorced.

They said with schools closing for second term on August 2, they fear that many children may be locked out of the mandatory registration.

They said it was difficult to verify the pupils' correct ages and names.

NEW NAMES

The national assessment, which will be the first in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) will be conducted from September 16-20.

The names of the children, when they joined the schools, are different from the new ones introduced by some parents.

Some parents who had given three names of their children, now want the fathers’ names to be removed following separation or divorce.

In some cases, parents have refused to provide the schools with birth certificates after realising that the documents have names of the pupils’ fathers with whom they have either separated or divorced.

“We have a big challenge since some parents are yet to furnish us with birth documents,” said Mr Nicholas Mungai, Kabazi Primary School head teacher.

NEMIS

Mr Mungai said that so far, the school has registered at least 120 learners online but 13 of the pupils have not been captured by the National Education Management Information System (Nemis).

A number of head teachers in the region said that most teachers are yet to be trained on the assessment methods.

St Peter’s Elite School head teacher Mr Simon Mburu said the institution is still waiting for the recommended assessment tools from the Kenya National Examination Council to rollout the registration.

Mr Mburu revealed that they were facing challenges in accessing Nemis portal.

“Entering pupils’ details in the Nemis portal is too slow, it takes a lot of time before learners’ details are captured in the system,” said Mr Mburu.

ASSESSMENT

Mr Mburu said the school hopes to register its 122 learners ahead of the national assessment in September.

“We have started engaging parents who have issues with the birth certificates of their children to enable the school complete the registration exercise,” said Mr Mburu.

He said the school has not started the assessment exercise as the training of their teachers is not yet complete.

“The training exercise period should be extended because two days are not adequate to equip the teachers with the necessary skills and techniques to handle the learners,” said Mr Mburu.