Why national exams should continue

Kenya: Karachuonyo MP James Rege wants to invite Parliament to debate the abolition of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.

Under the proposed Basic Education (Amendment) Bill 2015, Mr Rege wants the two national examinations abolished.

He wants the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) to prepare a progress assessment report for every learner at the end of each year.

At the end of the learning period in primary and secondary schools, Knec shall be expected to compute and average results of all the end-year progress reports for every learner for the purposes of finding the final grade attained by the learner.

Examinations are a necessary part of a quality assurance mechanism and provides important feedback on the nature and quality of the curriculum as well as the quality of teaching and learning. It is an important tool for evaluating students’ learning outcome and requires proper planning to meet high standards.

The strength of any national education system worth its salt, is underpinned by a quality teaching service, a strong and coherent national curriculum and a rigorous examination system.

Aside from these conventional reasons, it also provides a national certification function given the reliability, robustness and resilience that is associated with it.

Examinations set and administered by an independent body motivates teachers and learners. Indeed, examinations are students’ motivation to learn more. Tests assess students’ knowledge, abilities and skills taught within a given period.

The argument against examinations has also been that it examines in three days or in a month what students took eight or four years to learn. But, let’s remember a society’s ability depends on the sum total of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and many other capabilities and habits it has acquired for use when it becomes necessary.