The 2017 KCPE results were released on November 21, two days later than this year. In previous years, KCPE results were released just after Christmas and KCSE moved to the following year.
According to Prof George Magoha, the chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council, the council had invested in technology that enhances marking, tallying and swift relaying of results.
Sources at Knec say several test-runs had been done on the new technology. The new technology, known as Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) was fine-tuned for fast marking of Kiswahili Insha and English Composition papers.
OMR technology captures marked data from candidates’ answer sheets using specialised scanning. OMR ranks up to 10,000 scripts per day.
READ MORE
Excessive testing undermines teaching, learning in schools
Teachers, parents want Knec to scrap the KPSEA grading system
KNEC releases KPSEA results, urges schools to address gaps
Long wait for schools and students for verdict on KCPE, KCSE complaints
Scripts are marked in batches of 100 and 200 sheets. The marked Insha and Composition scripts are scanned by the machines which accurately tally marks and make entries in record time, cutting down the marking process.
This year Knec contracted 5,834 examiners to mark the scripts.
The manual tallying and entry of Insha and Composition marks was cited as the reason release of the results would be delayed.