Elderly Knec examiners put on red alert

Citizen digital | April 24, 2024 | KNEC News Portal | No Comments

Elderly Secondary School Teachers and those with underlying health conditions in Vihiga County have been advised against traveling to Nairobi for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination marking exercise.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Vihiga Branch Executive Secretary Sabala Inyeni made the appeal when he spoke to Kenya News Agency (KNA) at his office in Mbale town on Thursday morning.

“We are appealing to Senior Teachers, particularly those aged 50 and above, including those with any underlying health conditions to be extra careful to avoid getting infected by the deadly Covid-19,” said Inyeni.

Inyeni expressed regret over the County’s loss of three teachers, who were members of KUPPET, to Covid-19 within a period of one month.

“One of them was a High School Principal who died while undergoing treatment in Kakamega County Referral Hospital,” added Inyeni.

According to the official, about 270 teachers had already travelled from the County to Nairobi where they will participate in the 2020 KCSE examination marking exercise.

He at the same time urged the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) to consider improving the welfare of the examination markers.

“KNEC should consider increasing traveling allowances for the teachers to enable them to meet increased costs of traveling from their various stations to designated marking centres in Nairobi,” Inyeli said.

The marking exercise kicked off on Tuesday April, 22 and is expected to run for about two to three weeks. The last batch of examiners are expected to travel on April 28th. These are examiners who mark ‘small’ subjects; those with low candidature like Computer studies.

Already, some teachers have lost the battle with Covid 19 with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) urging all teachers to take the jab.

Meanwhile, Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha has said results for the 2020 KCSE examinations will be released by 10th May; before schools re-open for third term.