More than 17,000 teachers have reported to 25 marking centers across the country to begin grading the nearly 438 thousand Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams. Grading has begun despite threats by the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) to boycott the grading process.
A strike was proposed to force the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) to address several grievances. Specifically, Kuppet called for Knec to review taxation rates for teachers, provide accommodations at marking centers, and give teachers marking examinations a 300% pay raise. Until these demands were given due attention, Deputy Secretary General of Kuppet, Moses Nthurima, declared that no members of the union would mark any papers.
In response to this threat, Paul Wasanga, CEO of Knec, declared “examinations marking must got on as scheduled, anybody planning to disrupt the exercise should know that it is illegal and would be dealt with accordingly…This is an individual teacher’s decision. They choose to sign up or not.”
In response to this controversy, Chairman of Kenya Secondary School Heads Associate, John Awiti pointed out that it will be students and their parents who are harmed by a potential boycott which would delay the examinations and their grading. He stated “We do not want to gamble with the marking exercise…Candidates played their part by studying hard and to also write the examinations. It would be unreasonable for these children not to get their results because Knec and Kuppet did not agree.”
Despite concerns that test results would be delayed due to union grievances, grading has begun as planned. Test results for the KCSE will be released by the end of December, and then results for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) will be released by the end of February. According to the Knec, union demands will not be ignored but will be dealt with in early 2014.
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Written by Amanda Lubit