Yesterday, Wednesday, January 11, 2023, the Kenya National Examination Council dismissed all CRE Paper 1 examiners with immediate effect. Those who had returned to St. Francis Mang’u Girls High School to continue marking have been asked to leave.
Efforts to restore calmness yesterday (Tuesday) bore no fruit. The center hosted about 1,000 examiners.
Following a meeting between the Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission, and the Kenya National Examination Council, it was decided to send them home (KNEC).
The dissatisfied examiners complained about coercion, authoritarian management by the center manager, low pay, and the implementation of strict examination marking guidelines.
“Examiners marking the CRE papers must be paid like other assessors.” “We cannot accept Ksh55 per paper marked when our colleagues marking other subjects are taking home Ksh78 for the same job,” an examiner said.
Their discontent is also focused on their pitiful pay, which is assessed according to script marks rather than other criteria like Kiswahili.
They claim that assessors in other subjects receive KES 78 per script marked, but CRE examiners only receive KES 55 per paper marked.
During the marking process, the markers complained that their supervisors had been waking them up at five in the morning and sending them to bed after ten.
The examiners expressed sorrow that their inability to render a fair evaluation and perhaps underperformance were a result of the lengthy hours.
The examiners also griped about having their laptops and phones seized from the marking area.
By the time this report was published, teachers were slowly departing the center while anyone who was not permitted was being escorted out.