The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has released details of the scheduled assessments for the 2020 Grade 4 pupils in the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

The assessment, which is scheduled for March 23, 2021, will form 20 percent of the final Grade 6 mark under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

KNEC Chief Executive Officer Mercy Karogo said the council will upload Grade 4 age-based and intermediate level stage-based assessment tools by March 7 for schools to use and access.

Karogo called on schools to download and administer the assessment tools, scores and upload the results of Grade 4 learners on the Council’s CBC assessment portal between March 8 and 19.

“Materials required for performing the assessment tasks should be improvised as much as possible within the immediate school environment,” Karogo said in a statement.

Student Assessment Number

Each learner in the database will be issued with an assessment number, automatically generated by the Council ICT system, that will be used to identify the learners during future assessments.

According to the Knec Boss, “Schools will be expected to inform parents and learners of their assessment numbers which will be used throughout their basic education cycle for KNEC assessment”.

All candidates, including Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate Secondary Examinations (KCSE), who missed the national exams following the nationwide schools’ closure in 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, are expected sit for their examinations from March 23, 2021.

KCPE exams will be concluded on March 24 with the KCSE examination marking expected to commence on April 19 and be concluded on May 7.

The scheduled assessment of the current Grade 4 learners, who are the pioneer class of the new CBC curriculum that was adopted by Kenya in 2017 to replace the 8-4-4 system, is a national examination that will form 20 percent of the final Grade 6 mark before the students can join Junior Secondary school at Grade 7.

The grade four learners have two more years in primary school in Grade 5 and six. Unlike with the 844 system where learners took eight years in primary school before joining high school, under the Competency-Based Curriculum, students will only take six years before joining junior high school.

7 Core competencies of CBC
The assessment in the competency-based evaluates learners in the following seven competences;

Communication and collaboration
Critical thinking and problem solving
Imagination and creativity
Citizenship
Learning to learn
Self-efficacy
Digital literacy
Schools in Kenya fully re-opened in January 4, this year, following the March 2020 closure when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country.

In October last year, there was a partial re-opening targeting Form 4, Class 8 candidates and Grade 4 pupils.