Set ‘reasonable deadline’ for KCSE registration, players tell Knec

By Augustine Oduor

Nairobi, Kenya: Calls are mounting for the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to allow adequate time for listing of all Form Four candidates even as it extended the registration deadline to Monday.

Secondary school head teachers now say they need more than the one-week extension period allocated to fully register the remaining candidates.

Communication from Knec indicates the registration deadline has been moved from March 31 to April 7. However, the registration deadline for KCPE candidates remains March 31.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association national chairman John Awiti said locking out the candidates would be unfair.

“Knec must know these children have undergone many challenges over the past four years and it would be an injustice to lock them out just because of technological hitches in registration,” said Awiti.

The two teachers’ unions have also demanded a ‘reasonable extension’ of the registration deadline.

Locked out

Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary General Wilson Sossion and his Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers counterpart Akelo Misori asked Knec not to lock out any candidate.

“It is in the interests of all candidates to register for examinations and given the few challenges experienced, it is important to give them all an opportunity,” said Sossion.

Knec Chief Executive Officer Paul Wasanga said the extension was a result of heavy congestion at the examination portal as many schools were rushing to beat the earlier deadline.

“It is unfortunate that after allowing schools enough time they still rush to upload data at the last minute,” said Wasanga.

Announcing the dates last year, Wasanga said the shift from the previous timeline in January had to be effected as it had caused challenges in processing the data.

Wasanga said slightly over 450,000 candidates had registered for KCSE two days to the March 31 deadline.

He said the one-week extension would be enough for all the remaining candidates to be registered. “Last year, we had 442,000 for KCSE. This means only a few candidates have not been registered,” said the CEO.