Ruto wishes candidates the best as KCSE begins

By Peter Ochieng

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams are on across the country.

Candidates are sitting for the exams in 10, 755 exam centres around the nation.

A record 965,501 candidates are sitting for KCSE, an increase of over 62, 000 compared to the number in 2023.

In 2023, 903,138 candidates sat for KCSE.

Rehearsals were conducted on Friday last week.

Candidates will first tackle practical and oral exams for elective subjects, before the main written papers, set to begin on November 4.

The first batch of exams are covering French (oral), German (oral), Kenyan Sign Language (practical signing skills), Arabic language and music (practical).

President William Ruto is among leaders who took to social media to wish all the candidates all the best.

"Best wishes to the 965,000 candidates sitting the KCSE examinations beginning today. May their four-year efforts and preparation be rewarded with success," said the President in a post on Facebook.

According to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) timetable, the first exam session will start daily at 8am, with the second session beginning at 2pm.

"In case of any discrepancy, the time stated on the question paper should be taken as the correct one. Time for reading through questions is part of the time shown on the question paper except where special paper instructions indicate otherwise," KNEC said in a statement.

This year's KCSE exams will conclude on November 22.

Marking of the KCSE exams is expected to be completed before schools reopen on January 6, 2025.

Approximately 32,480 teachers will be involved in the marking exercise across 40 marking centres.

Besides KCSE, KNEC is also administering the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) for Grade Six learners.

KPSEA exams will run for three days, from October 28-30, 2024, before KPSEA candidates transition to Junior Secondary School (JSS) in January 2025.