Four years to end of do-or-die Class Eight examinations

Education CS George Magoha during a press conference in Kibera Nairobi on Monday, September 30, 2019. Prof Magoha has been pushed for the implementation of the CBC. [David Njaaga,Standard]

More than one million pupils will today sit their last Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination paper, marking the start of a count-down to the end of the cut-throat national tests under the 8-4-4-education system.

This comes after a national education curriculum conference held in August this year sealed the fate of the end of primary national examinations.

During the conference, President Uhuru Kenyatta rested the long-running debate on the fate of KCPE under 8-4-4 system, saying all primary school children would transition to secondary schools.

“We have insisted that there will be no exams in Grade Six and there will be 100 per cent transition to secondary schools,” said Uhuru.

This means that only four more classes will sit the Class Eight national examinations that have seen some pupils commit suicide and school heads ejected from their working stations over poor results.

Students will, however, sit national examinations in Grade Nine and Grade 12. Under the new 2-6-3-3 curriculum, there will be no emphasis on national examinations, with the Government announcing that all children will transition to secondary schools.

This also means that there will be no wastage, as all children will transit to the next class and career paths – Arts and Sports, Social Science and Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) – created at the secondary level.

The school-based assessments that will be administered at the school level will only serve to guide pupils’ understanding of the concepts under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Under the new education system, learners will spend two years at pre-primary before proceeding to Grade One to Six.

They will then transit to junior secondary school before joining senior secondary school (Grades 10 to 12). University education will last three years.

Grade 12 will be an equivalent of present Form Four. This means the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be retained and used to place students to universities.

Rolled out

The CBC was rolled out in all schools last January 3, in pre-primary 1 and 2 and Grade 1 to Grade 3. The Government has scheduled to roll out Grade Four in January next year.

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) already released a set of books to be used in the national roll-out, setting the stage for the gradual phase-out of the old education system in upper primary.

Finer details of the CBC implementation matrix shows that the current Grade Three pioneer class will not sit national examinations in 2022 when they complete primary school education.

Uhuru announced in August that the national roll-out of the CBC in Grade Four would start next January when schools open for the first term.

This means the current Standard Four pupils who move to Class Five next year will be the last cohort to sit the national exams in 2023.

The implementation schedule reveals that KCPE examinations will only be done in the next four years. This means pupils joining Grade Four next year will not sit KCPE examinations if the roll-out goes as scheduled.

The 2019 Standard Four pupils will be the last to sit KCPE, which will be done in 2023. They move to Standard Five next year.

The implementation schedule indicates that the current Standard Five pupils, who will move to Class Six next year will sit KCPE examinations in 2022.

The latest Standard Six pupils, who move to Class Seven next year, are scheduled to sit KCPE in 2021. The recent Class Seven pupils will sit the examinations next year (2020).

The 8-4-4 has been criticised as thousands of learners are sieved out annually due to stiff competitions.