The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has opened the portal for Grade Six learners to select the Junior Secondary Schools they would like to be placed in.
The portal was launched on Monday and will remain open until August 30th, according to the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec).
Despite the fact that schools are closed, Knec chief David Njengere confirmed on Tuesday that the portal has been opened and that students can begin selecting their preferred secondary schools.
Learners must log into the portal with the assistance of their school heads and teachers, select the Grade Six register, and select their preferred schools.
The selection criteria will require learners to choose two national, two regional, two county, four sub-county, and two private schools.
There are over 10,487 Junior Secondary Schools nationwide – 8,933 public and 1,554 private.
A total of 1,268,830 Grade Six learners are expected to transition to Junior Secondary Schools.
KNEC had set guidelines for Grade Six 2022 national examinations.
Njengere explained that the final Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) for Grade Six will be presented in multiple-choice format.
He detailed that for the Grade Six exams, KPSEA will follow the Basic Education Curriculum Framework, guidelines that were unveiled by the Ministry of Education in 2019.
While releasing the JSS placement guidelines, Education Cabinet secretary George Magoha said public secondary schools which share a compound with a public primary school shall use the available classrooms in the latter institution as additional learning space.
The framework was developed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). Grades Three, Four, Five, and part of Grade Six national assessments are formative, while learners will sit for a summative assessment at the end of Grade Six.
The summative assessment will contribute to 40 per cent of learners’ scores. They will have acquired their 60 per cent from school-based assessments.
Parents and some students were wary that the exams would not follow the multiple-choice format but follow the format used in the administration of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE).
In the summative assessment, the Grade Six learners will be assessed in five subjects including Mathematics and English on the first day, Integrated Science and Kiswahili on the second day, and Creative Arts and Social Studies on the third day.
