New scanning machines speed up KCPE exam marking

Parents and teachers of Imperial Primary in Kisii town celebrate with Gloria Kemunto Ogochi who scored 435 marks in KCPE on November 19, 2018. PHOTO | BENSON MOMANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The marking was concluded on Friday last week, with English composition and Insha.
  • The machines cost taxpayers Sh100 million.
  • The new optical mark readers replaced 20 old scanners bought more than 17 years ago.
  • The new machines take a pile of scripts that can be marked from both sides.

The acquisition of 20 new scanning machines by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has made processing of examinations results faster.

For the past two years, the results for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination have been released within weeks, departing from the past when it used to take months.

The marking was concluded on Friday last week, with English composition and Insha. The machines cost taxpayers Sh100 million.

The new optical mark readers replaced 20 old scanners bought more than 17 years ago. Since last year the council has been printing the name, centre name and index number on the examination materials for quick marking.

PILE OF SCRIPTS

The new machines take a pile of scripts that can be marked from both sides.

Knec Chief Executive Officer George Magoha had assured Kenyans that the exams will be out in record time.

The examination was done between October 30 and November 1.

1,052,364 CANDIDATES

A total of 27,354 supervisors, 65,107 invigilators, 54,322 security officers, 27,161 centre managers, 918 examination management directors, 1,844 security officers manning containers and 6,791 drivers were deployed to administer the examination.

A total of 1,052,364 candidates sat the examination. Of these, 527,294 (50.10 percent) were boys and 525,070 (49.9 percent) girls.

In the 2017, 993,718 candidates sat the KCPE examination.