Children in a classroom /AI ILLUSTRATIONThe Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has dismissed as fake a notice circulating online directing schools to stop administering termly parallel examinations and warned schools against acting on the purported directive.
Schools administer parallel examinations to supplement the official School-Based Assessments (SBAs) under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) curriculum.
SBA projects are developed by KNEC but administered and marked locally by teachers in their respective schools.
They contribute specified weightings to learners’ overall assessment scores, depending on their education level, and often involve practical tasks and projects.
Termly parallel examinations help teachers identify subject competencies that learners have yet to master and provide targeted interventions before official SBA scores are uploaded to national assessment portals.
They are intended for learners who fail a project assessment or miss it for approved and documented reasons, including illness, injury or compassionate grounds.
The forged notice instructed schools to discontinue setting parallel examinations as substitutes for the 2026 SBA projects.
It further directed that all feedback communicated to parents and shared across learning areas by the close of term should comply with policy guidelines by October 31, 2026.
"This is to ensure credibility and consistency in reporting feedback to stakeholders," the notice claimed.
However, KNEC moved to counter the misinformation through its official X account, prominently labelling the notice "FAKE" and cautioning schools and parents against relying on its contents.
The council clarified that the purported directive had not originated from it and that no such instruction had been issued to learning institutions.
"Beware of fake news. Kaa chonjo," the council said, urging schools to disregard the circular.
SBAs are continuous assessment tools used to evaluate learners’ competencies throughout the academic year.
Any disruption to their implementation could affect the consistency and accuracy of learner performance records.
KNEC’s clarification comes as schools score learners’ performance in SBAs, with all scores expected to be marked and uploaded to the KNEC CBA Portal by October 23, 2026, the official closing date for the third term.
