Marking of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams has started in earnest with a view to releasing the results as soon as possible.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Wednesday said candidates will know their results in two weeks.
CS Magoha said marking started on Monday immediately after the first three papers were submitted. KCPE Candidates sat Mathematics, Composition, and English tests on Monday.
“We started marking two days ago, actually on the first day, and going by the progress, we shall spend similar time like we did last year,” Magoha said.
“If we challenge ourselves, the results will come out within fourteen days,” he added.
Magoha spoke at Kamukunji Deputy County Commissioners Office where he supervised the distribution of exams.
Marking of the multiple-choice questions has been made easier by the acquisition of the modern Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) which electronically scores the papers.
The process involves capturing marked data from candidates’ answer sheets using specialised scanning.
The machines work with a dedicated scanning device that shines a beam of light on the paper.
The contrasting reflection at predetermined positions on a page is then used to detect marked areas as they reflect less light than the blank areas of the paper.
With the new technology, scripts for the 1.2 million candidates are marked in batches of 100 and 200 sheets, unlike the previous technology, which took longer.
