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The Nairobian

Education Ministry halts registration of KCSE repeaters

Education

By Lewis Nyaundi | Jan 30, 2025

**KCSE candidates being frisked before the start of English Paper 1 exam** **on March 26, 2021.** [File, Standard]

The Ministry of Education has halted the registration of KCSE repeaters.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Thursday said the move complies with a court order that suspended the recently launched KCSE July series.

The special examination targets candidates who missed previous KCSE exams due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness, individuals seeking to improve their scores, including those retaking specific subjects, candidates whose results were nullified due to malpractice, and adult learners not enrolled in regular schools but who can provide proof of primary education qualifications.

The High Court in Kisii on Wednesday suspended the registration of candidates for the newly introduced mid-year KCSE exams following a petition by Dr Magare Gikenyi.

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In his petition, Dr claimed that there was no evidence that public participation was undertaken.

“Other parts of the guidelines were made without any stakeholders’ consultation and or without public participation,” stated Gikenyi.

He had sued Kenya National Examinations Council, its CEO Dr David Njengere, CS Ministry of Education Julius Ogamba, and the Attorney General over the proposal.

The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, Kenya Private School Association, and the Kenya Parents Association were listed as interested parties.

As a result, Mr Kipsang said the Ministry is awaiting further directions from the Attorney General on how to proceed.

The PS also hinted that students scheduled to take the July-series KCSE will now have the option to sit for the traditional November/December KCSE exams.

The Kenya National Examination Council had announced that candidates seeking to retake their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams will no longer be allowed to register for the November series.

Instead, they would sit for a special exam to be administered in July.

Registration for this first-of-its-kind exam began on January 27, 2025, and was to run for 28 days, closing on February 21.

KNEC noted that all repeaters and private candidates must register for the July series and are not eligible to register for the November KCSE exams.

Concerns however emerged over what the type of exam would be.

With forced repetition banned by the government, stakeholders asked questions about whether the targeted learners will be allowed to sit in class with the rest of the candidates as they await to sit the tests.

Questions also emerged about whether these candidates will be allowed to bypass the July exams and write the KCSE tests with the present form fours at the end of the year.

Also raised is the question of whether the government will pay repeaters tuition fees, given that the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) considers the learners as private candidates.

It emerged that secondary schools are keen to admit repeaters to fill up the empty form-one spaces and also to rip from the tuition fees paid by the government of individual parents.