TSC Issues New Guidelines on National Exam Supervision, Invigilation

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has directed teachers who wish to oversee national examinations to be registered in the CP2 system by September 26 of this year.
In a circular issued by acting TSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Evaleen Mitei, the Commission communicated fresh guidelines on the recruitment of teachers who will supervise the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJEA),and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) from October.
Aside from the CP2 registration, TSC directed that all teachers must be qualified, employed, and registered with the commission.
The CP2 system refers to the Competency Portal 2, commonly called the Teacher Management Information System for contract/part-time work.
It is an online platform used by TSC to manage and deploy teachers for short-term, non-regular assignments, especially during national examinations.
Through CP2, teachers and other personnel can be nominated, vetted, and contracted to serve in roles such as centre managers, supervisors, invigilators, and examiners.
The Commission noted that those recruited will not be allowed to serve in schools with which they have been affiliated in the past three years.
KPSEA is scheduledto take place from October 27 to October 30. The four-day examination is meant for Grade 6 learners and is part of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). KJSEA will take place on October 27 and concluding on November 6. These exams are particularly critical in measuring the progress of learners under the CBC, to guide their transitions to the next grades. KCSE examinations, involving Form Four candidates, will begin on November 3 and end on November 21, running for three weeks (18 days).
Further, examination centres hosting both KJSEA and KPSEA candidates would be allocated independent supervisors for each assessment, provided each has at least 30 candidates. One invigilator is to be deployed for every 20 candidates.
For KJSEA, supervisors must be serving secondary school teachers with at least a diploma in education, while primary or junior school teachers must have three years’ teaching experience and prior national exam supervision.
Also, exam invigilators were required to be serving primary school teachers with at least three years’ experience. At the KPSEA level, supervisors were required to be primary school teachers with at least three years’ experience and prior invigilation experience.
Another requirement interested teachers should comply with is declaring any vested interest in their posted centres. TSC noted that declaration forms would be emailed to sub-county directors.
For KCSE, supervisors must be serving secondary school teachers with at least a diploma in education, preferably senior teachers or heads of department, while invigilators must be primary school teachers with a minimum of three years’ experience.
To tighten accountability, the guidelines stipulate that KCSE supervisors will be rotated weekly.
In addition, during KCSE oral and practical papers, only supervisors will be present at the examination centres, a measure the TSC said was aimed at minimising unnecessary personnel presence and safeguarding the integrity of the examinations.
The guidelines further state that for every 200 candidates, one supervisor would be deployed, while hosted centres would not have separate supervisors.
For learners under the stage-based pathway, teachers would invigilate their own pupils at a ratio of one invigilator for every 10 learners. No supervisors or centre managerswill be deployed for KILEA and KPLEA centres.
For visually-impaired candidates, TSC noted that centres with such students should have at least one invigilator conversant with Braille.
Both hosted and hosting institutions would have their own centre managers, though hosting managers will be responsible for collecting and returning examination materials.
“These measures are designed to ensure transparency, fairness, and credibility in the management of this year’s examinations,” TSC noted.