The Kenya national examination councilor KNEC has explained why a supplementary exam could not be immediately administered to the 2,000 students who missed 2023 the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams .
The KNEC CEO David Njengere said the supplementary exam was called off as a result to the number of candidates was too low to justify a special test.
Njengere further added that KCPE only helps in placement of learners in various categories of schools namely national, extra-county, county or sub-county and that is why it is standardised.
In his argument, he indicated that to be able to conduct a norm-referenced exam, there are a lot of statistical information to compare one child to the other.
According to the country these learners fall below a certain threshold in terms of numbers hence they will not be able to conduct a normal norm-referenced exam.
This means that it will be so hard for the council to compare only 2,000 candidates when doing standardisation.
According to knec the above population is too small to do a normal norm referenced exam.
He further indicated that the cost aspect was also put into consideration now that already KNEC had incurred full cost of printing the exam for the 9,000 but they did not show up is a loss.
These learners however have three years to sit the qualifying exam before they can sit their KCSE in 2027.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu while releasing the 2023 KCPE examination last November, h said that KNEC would administer a supplementary examination missed for 9,000 candidates who failed to sit the exams.
After a new audit of the number of candidates who actually failed to sit the exams, knec was only able to trace 2,000 eligible learners.
As of now, the council and the ministry have directed to have these learners to be advised to ensure they sit their individual qualifying exam by the time they are in Form Three.

Jamhuri High School students receive their National examinations papers during their KCSE Examination; IMAGE/STANDARD
Kcpe exams will enable them be registered to sit the KCSE at Form Four.
Knec has also said that the registration for this year’s Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and KCSE registration will start on January 29 and end on March 29, taking two months’ period.
All schools have been asked to comply since knec says that the period is more than adequate for schools to register and validate the data to ensure that all details are for learners are uploaded and that the data is accurate.