Reports that the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) had misplaced the information of the instructors who administered the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams have been rejected.
On Saturday, February 1, the examination council issued a brief statement in which it criticized a widely shared social media article that claimed KNEC had not yet paid teachers due to insufficient data.
The post was recognized by KNEC as fraudulent and deceptive. Due to KNEC’s difficulties retrieving the missing information, the flagged post claimed that teachers who took part in invigilating the national exams would not be receiving their compensation anytime soon.
According to the fake post, KNEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Njengere confirmed the delays and urged the invigilators to exercise patience.
“We don’t have sufficient details of the teachers who invigilated the national exams—KNEC—to explain why it has not paid the frustrated tutors,” alleged the flagged post.
The fraudulent social media post further claimed that KNEC was also yet to receive a duly signed and stamped attendance register for the 2024 Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) examinations.
As per the post, the delays in submitting the attendance register saw the KNEC CEO condemn school heads, stating that KPSEA invigilators were likely to experience the same fate as their KCSE counterparts.
“KNEC is yet to receive the duly signed and stamped attendance register for the 2024 KPSEA assessment. This is to kindly request that you send a scanned copy to [email protected] to facilitate the processing of allowances of the contracted professionals who were attached to your centres,” the post claimed.
KNEC was forced to clarify the claims after a section of social media users expressed concern over the allegations, with some calling on the exam council to address the matter.
Higher Allowances Demands By Teachers
In October last year, KNEC was forced to intervene after teachers demanded higher allowances for invigilating, supervising, and marking the exams.
The push for better remuneration was led by the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) officials, who submitted a formal request to CS Ogamba for the improvement in the allowances.
The union urged the Ministry of Education to pay teachers daily rates of Ksh3,000 for invigilators, Ksh3,500 for supervisors, and Ksh4,500 for principals who manage examination centres.