In October/ November every year, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) administers the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. In addition, the KCSE Qualifying Test will be offered by KNEC.
In this context, KNEC desires to draw your attention to the following information, which is critical for candidate registration for tests and assessment:
Candidate Registration for School
The following are general registration procedures for potential candidates who are currently enrolled and attending school:
Candidate registration for the examinations and evaluation will begins on February to March.
All candidates registered in their examination centers should be genuine/bona fide students in their school, according to the heads of institutions. Any other person’s registration will be viewed as an examination malpractice that will result in consequences against an examination center, including the school’s deregistration as a KNEC examination center.
Schools with fewer than five (5) candidates will be unable to enrol their students for the exams. Such schools should contact their respective Sub County Director of Education (SCDE), who will locate an approved test center with at least five (5) candidates where they can enrol their students. 1.1.4 According to the previously stated schedule, schools with fewer than 30 candidates will be hosted during the tests.
Using the examination center log–in credentials, headteachers must log onto the KNEC registration portal to capture the registration details of applicants; 1.1.6 The following registration-related details must be accurate, according to the heads of institutions:
The names of the candidates should be in the same order as they appear on the birth certificate.
Gender;
Date of birth
Citizenship;
Subjects for which you have registered, including optional ones if appropriate;
Information about different types of special needs candidates (e.g., blind, low vision, deaf, and physically disabled).
For KPSEA, all primary school principals are asked to double–check the learners’ bio–data (registration details) obtained in the Grade 5 assessment and make any required changes before the registration period ends.
challenged).
Principals must upload candidates’ passport images with a resolution of 300 × 300 pixels in order to register them for KCSE examinations. All schools and candidates must follow the admission requirements outlined in the KCSE registration instructions in the Regulations and User Guides for the Management of KCSE Examinations published by KNEC in 2017. (The KNEC website, www.knec.ac.ke, has the regulations and User Guide.
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KCSE Private Candidate Registration
The following are the registration guidelines for potential private candidates who are registered with SCDE offices:
- The SCDEs are responsible for identifying and registering all private candidates.
- The candidates shall be required to fill and submit the downloaded Private Candidate‘s Registration Form alongside other requisite documents;
- For coordination purposes, only one private examination centre will be registered per Sub County;
- SCDEs shall identify one public school where the private candidates will be hosted during the examination. This will be the centre where the candidates will undertake the KCSE projects and sit for their practical examination papers;
- For all KCSE private candidates including those in prison, the registration officers should ensure that candidates upload passport photographs with specifications of 300 x 300 pixels;
- All private candidates shall be expected to adhere to entry requirements as stipulated in the registration instructions for KCPE KCSE candidates in the Regulations and User Guides for the Management of KCPE and KCSE Examinations issued by KNEC in 2017.
Registration of KCSE Qualifying Test Candidates
KCSE Qualifying Test shall be offered to prospective candidates who do not meet the stipulated entry requirements for the examination.
All the KCSE examination Qualifying Test candidates will be registered at their respective SCDEs‘ offices;
The registered candidates will sit for the examination at a venue to be identified by the respective SCDES;
The documents required for registration of KCSE Qualifying Test candidates include:
- a copy of the original CPE examination certificate for Kenyans who did not sit for KCPE examination;
- a copy of the Letter of Equation from KNEC for all candidates holding non–Kenyan (foreign) primary education certificates. Prospective candidates can access the services for the Letter of Equation from the KNEC website;
- a passport size photograph with specifications of 300 x 300 pixels.
Heads of institutions having candidates who hold foreign certificates/qualifications shall be required to ensure that the certificates/qualifications are equated by KNEC and that thereafter, the candidates register for the Qualifying Test a year before they are due to register for the KCSE examination.
Handling of Passwords for Registration
The following are the guidelines on handling of Passwords issued for use by Heads of Institutions and SCDEs:
- Passwords are confidential and strictly issued to each school/SCDEs, hence it is the responsibility of the Heads of institutions/SCDEs to ensure their security;
- In the event that a school has lost/forgotten its password, the head teacher should send an email to KNEC (em@knec.ac.ke);
- New centers, once approved and uploaded on the website, shall access the registration platform by keying in their centre code number as the username and password. Thereafter, Heads of institutions are advised to change the password from the centre number to a password of their choice to maintain confidentiality; ..
- Heads of institutions and SCDEs are advised to safeguard their passwords to restrict access of the school‘s registration data by unauthorised persons.
Registration of New Sub–counties and New Schools
The following are the guidelines for registration of newly gazetted sub–counties and schools that have been approved as examination centres:
New sub counties requiring to be assigned KNEC codes and coding of schools should submit the following to KNEC:
- A Kenya Gazette notice on the creation of the Sub–county;
- List of schools showing their previous codes and the proposed new codes;
- Location of the storage facility (Container) and details of the Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) or Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) Office.
New schools requesting to be registered as KNEC examination centers for the KPSEA and KCSE examinations should submit to KNEC the following:
- A certified copy of a valid registration certificate from the County Director of Education. It is important to note that expired registration certificates will not be accepted;
- Inspection questionnaire which is dully filled and authenticated by the Sub County Director of Education;
- Duly filled application form from the school.
Payment of Examination Fees
The government of Kenya shall pay examination fees for all candidates in public and private schools sitting for the KPSEA;
- KCPE and KCSE examinations except for the following categories of candidates: candidates who are re–sitting/repeating KCSE examinations;
- Non–Citizens (Non–Kenyans);
- Private candidates registering in the Sub County Private Examination Centers;
- Candidates in prisons.
The fees applicable per candidate for each examination is as stated in the table below.
| Examination | Category of candidates | Number of subjects | Fees (Kes) |
| KPSEA | All candidates | 5 | 750.00 |
| KCSE | Regular and private candidates | 7 | 5,000.00 |
| 8 | 5,400.00 | ||
| 9 | 5,800.00 | ||
| Re-sitting / repeating candidates | 3, 100.00 | ||
| 2 | 3,500.00 | ||
| 3 | 3,900.00 | ||
| 4 | 4,300.00 | ||
| 5 | 4,700.00 | ||
| 6 | 5, 100.00 | ||
| 7 | 5,500.00 | ||
| 8 | 5,900.00 | ||
| 9 | 6,300.00 | ||
| Qualifying Test (per candidate) | 1 | 3,000.00 |
All private candidates will be expected to pay their examination fees directly into the KNEC fees collection account. The fees should be deposited in the respective KNEC examination fees collection accounts in either National Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Co–operative Bank or Equity Bank.
The deposit slips should be submitted to the Sub County Director of Education who shall forward them to KNEC together with other registration documents.
Submission of registration materials to KNEC
The Head teachers will be expected to submit the registration documents to the Sub County Director of Education. SCDEs will be informed on when the registration documents will be submitted to KNEC.
For more details on registration of KCSE candidates, please refer to the KCSE instructions manuals:
Guide for Management and Administration of National Examinations (2017) which were circulated to all examination centers. For KPSEA refer to Guidelines for the Management and administration of the Competency Based Assessment.
Finally, please note that there will be no late registration of candidates for the examinations / assessment and Qualifying Test. All involved parties are therefore advised to observe the set timelines as KNEC will strictly adhere to the same.
