KNEC Demanded to Better Marking Fees and Examiners Hosted in Hotels
KNEC Demanded to Better Marking Fees and Examiners Hosted in Hotels. A request made to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) stated that exam markers should be treated with respect by sleeping in hotels rather than schools for the full marking session.
Moffats Okisai, executive secretary of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Busia branch, has suggested this strategy as well as others the national examination board may use to enhance its operations.
Dorms should therefore only be utilized by students during marking procedures, as opposed to examiners as is the case at the moment, in accordance with Okisai.
“A nice, calm, and unruffled atmosphere should be guaranteed in secured hotels. He advised the immediate cessation of the antiquated practice of corralling examiners in dormitories.
On June 9, 2023, Okisai sent an open letter to KNEC CEO Dr. David Njeng’ere explaining that it is upsetting to see how instructors are being mistreated by the Council given that the 2022 KCSE markers had not yet been paid.
It’s crucial to remember that no money has yet been paid to the KNEC officers engaged for 2022 as this literature is being created. According to Okisai in his letter, this is despite several inquiries for clarification and protests.
among promote domestic tourism and the local economy, he thought that the marking procedure should be distributed among the various regions.
The main centers for KCPE and KCSE marking are currently located in Nairobi and the surrounding area.
In line with the government’s “Buy Kenya, Build Kenya” agenda, the plan will function. According to Okisai, KNEC needs to ink contracts in advance with respectable hotels in each region for a national election that would determine the candidates’ destiny.
Labeling Fee
Okisai continues by saying that KNEC ought to lower the cost of per-script marking to at least Ksh500 and that the Council can unilaterally carry out the plan without outside intervention.
Every script should have a marking fee of at least Ksh 500. Okisai asserts that the marking charge has only grown modestly over the years.
At St. Francis Mang’u Girls High School, examiners for the Christian Religious Education (CRE) Paper 1 (313/1) of the 2022 Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) quit their jobs on January 10, 2023, citing poor salary and working conditions.
They claimed that although their Kiswahili peers were paid Ksh78 for the same work, they only received Ksh55 for scripts.
A sample of the prices showed that English papers ranged in price from Ksh57 to Ksh77, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics were priced between Ksh50 and Ksh52, while Business Studies and Agriculture were priced at Ksh52.
The school-level Agriculture Paper 3 is graded by instructors, who are never paid for their work. Along with the contributions of Deputy Centre Managers, Home Science, and Music professors, Okisai thinks KNEC should recognize and honor these instructors’ work.
Additionally, he advises that KNEC strike a deal with a number of airlines to fly teachers to and from the marking centers as opposed to the current arrangement, which necessitates that they travel by road.
“This is achievable if a budget has been submitted to Treasury for review. To regain the examiners’ lost faith and attention, the Council will have to put up a lot of effort. Old conventions and practices must be abandoned in order for the nation’s examining body to remain competitive, he said.
Okisai also asserts that the appointment letters for the examiners must be clear about the payment schedule.
In a May 2023 speech before the National Assembly’s Education Committee, Basic Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang said that the Ksh1 billion needed to pay the more than 40,000 examiners would be included in the budget for the 2023–24 fiscal year.
They received Ksh 20,000 as a down payment following the marking procedure.