Thousands of Grade Four and Standard Eight learners missed the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) assessment that began on Wednesday October 21.
The headteachers were quick to blame the government for not funding the buying of exam materials.
They also complained on the high cost of downloading and printing the materials.
The KNEC assessments will be marked internally, after which the schools will upload the scores on the KNEC portal.
The government had allocated Sh137.40 for every learner to run through the 11-week term. The money wasn’t enough to cutter for learners needs. It prompted some head teachers to ask for an extra coin from the parents to pay for the cost of printing and photocopying of the test materials.
“The government only released 20% instead of 30% of the funds. It’s not enough. Some teachers have been using their money to meet the school needs since March,” one of the head teachers said.
The Blackboard has learnt that in some schools learners are feared to have dropped out of school during the seven-month Covid-19 closure mostly due to marriages, pregnancies, and child labour.
The tests in several schools were delayed, with heads making possible arrangement to have them done.
KNEC stated that the assessment is meant to check the learners’ preparedness in classwork.
It also aims at identifying learning gaps and inform appropriate interventions.