For the next three years, anyone who is dissatisfied with their performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations has a chance to better their score, before the examination is discontinued from the education system.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) David Njeng’ere, said the mid-year examinations will begin in July 2025 and the results expected in August.
This will also give a chance to 2024 candidates who wish to better their grades to make another attempt and be eligible for tertiary education intake in September, alongside their counterparts who have already qualified.
“Anyone can register for the mid-year examinations. We’ll issue a circular next week and also a time-table for the examinations. The only students we’re going to block are the students currently in school. Even if you did KCSE 10 years ago, you can do the mid-year exam in July. This is because the KCSE examinations will come to an end in three years and we don’t want to overload the process in the last year,” he said.
The last KCSE examination under the 8-4-4 structure will be administered in 2027. The Knec boss urged the public, especially those wishing to retake the exam fully or partially, to take advantage of the remaining opportunities to do so, before the system transitions to competency-based assessment.
“...Any person wishing to repeat fully or partially should take advantage of the remaining chances to do so,” Dr Njeng’ere said.
He explained that the mid-year examinations will be administered at the various county headquarters and that Knec had experimented it in 2024, when all the private candidates sat their examinations at the county headquarters.
The announcement for the mid-year series examinations was made by Education Cabinet secretary Julius Ogamba when he released the 2024 KCSE results in Nairobi on Thursday.
“We’ll use the same examiners. We’re advising the Ministry of Education to work with the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (Kuccps) so that the results are considered for placement, for those who wish to join university. It’s not a very big population,” Dr Njeng’ere said.
“Starting this year, and following extensive stakeholder consultations, I wish to announce that Knec will introduce a midyear series of the KCSE examination, to be administered in July every year. The examination will target candidates wishing to repeat the KCSE examination, and those who may have missed sitting an examination due to sickness or other unexpected hardships. Adult candidates may also consider registering for the July KCSE series examination,” said Mr Ogamba.
