The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) main examinations officially began on Monday morning, with officials from the Ministry of Education arriving at various exam collection centers to oversee the distribution of exam materials.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang led the exercise at the Westlands DCC center, while Teachers Service Commission (CEO) Nancy Macharia oversaw the exam distribution at the Mvita center in Mombasa County.
Kipsang called on everyone involved in the administration of national exams to uphold integrity.
The students began with Chemistry and English Paper 1 theory exams.
According to the official Timetable released by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), the students will sit for Maths and English Paper One on Tuesday, Chemistry Paper 2 and English Paper 3 on Wednesday, Kiswahili Paper One (Writing) and Two (Grammar) before doing the Chemistry practicals the next day.
At least 903,260 candidates will be sitting this year’s KCSE exam.
Meanwhile, Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) chief executive officer Dr David Njengere has announced a new rule that will deter cheating.
According to Dr. Njengere, there would be a double collection of examination papers from the container to the examination centres.
This means the first session of KCSE will be conducted from 8:00 am, then the centre managers will return those papers to the container and they will collect the second session paper at 12:30 pm and they will administer that paper at 2:00 pm.”
Also, only center managers are allowed to have mobile phones in the examination center.