Centre Managers (Principals and Head Teachers), Supervisors and Invigilators play critical roles in the conduct of national examinations and the success of these examinations depends on entrusting this duty to dedicated teachers of high integrity.

The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) will contract close to 286,000 professionals to administer the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams; which will be done in March/April this year (2021). If you are interested, then apply online by February 25, 2021.

Read further guidelines here; Knec contracted professionals 2021; About 286,000 professionals expected to apply online by February 25.

It is the TSC Sub County Directors and Sub County Directors of Education who recruit and deploy to administer KNEC examinations.

The following are guidelines on deployment of personnel involved in the administration of all KNEC examinations  for implementation:-

a) In order to ensure recruitment of qualified serving teachers of high integrity to carry out management, Supervision and invigilation of national examinations, KNEC:

b) provided details of all the Supervisors and Invigilators for KCPE, KCSE, ECDE, PTE, DTE, TCAE and SNE examinations’ personnel, who registered with KNEC, to all the TSC County Directors. The Directors will therefore use the lists to deploy them, identify any shortfalls, fill in the vacancies  and inform KNEC;

c) expects the TSC Sub County Directors in each Sub County to issue Principals, Supervisors and Invigilators with appointment letters;

d) requests TSC Sub County Directors to deploy teachers from the data base provided, vet their credentials so as to ensure that they are serving teachers (registered and employed by TSC) who meet the qualifications as outlined by KNEC.

Qualification of Supervisors and Invigilators

a) Qualification of supervisors

Supervisors are responsible to TSC County Directors and by delegation to the Council, for the proper conduct of the KNEC examinations in their respective examination centres. Their qualifications are as follows:-

i) be serving teachers registered and employed by TSC with a minimum qualification of SI or Diploma in Education or Approved Teacher Status (ATS) grade or higher;

ii) for Teacher and Post School, must be teachers employed and registered by TSC and teaching in either secondary Schools or colleges.

iii) public service employees in Job group K and above, and who have previously served as teachers and have successfully supervised national examinations in the past;

iv) P1 teachers with 5 years teaching experience, 3 years of which he/she must have participated in the invigilation of KNEC examinations may be considered for supervision duties for KCPE examinations;

v) persons of high integrity as provided for in chapter 6 of the constitution and employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC);

vi) have minimum of three years’ experience as Invigilators;

vii) have the ability to attend to details.

b) Qualification of Invigilators

Invigilators are responsible to the TSC County Directors and by delegation to the Council under the direction of the Supervisors for the proper conduct of KNEC examinations. Their qualifications are as follows:-

i) be trained teachers with qualifications of P1 grade or higher and are registered and employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to teach in  public institutions;

ii) for Teacher and Post School examinations, must be teachers employed and registered by TSC and teaching in either secondary Schools or colleges.

iii) be trained teachers of ATS (Approved Teacher Status) grade or Higher and  teaching  in  public institutions:

iv) have teaching experience of  one year or more;

v) be persons of high integrity;

vi) institutions with candidates, who are touch readers (blind), should at least have one Invigilator who is conversant with Braille.

NB: Students, secretaries, messengers and/or clerks must not be used to supervise or invigilate KNEC examinations. In the event that there are fewer Supervisors/Invigilators, the TSC Sub County Directors may recruit teachers who meet the above criteria and inform KNEC immediately, giving the details of those who have been recruited.

Supervisors and Invigilators who do not meet the above qualifications are not legible for any payment.

c) Identification Badges 

Security identification badges will be provided to all Supervisors and Invigilators for identification purposes.

d) Deployments

After deployment, Supervisors, Invigilators, Drivers and Security Officers are required to fill in their details and sign the declaration form, which is used to verify claims of supervision personnel for purposes of payment.  SCDE and TSC CD are requested to ensure the concerned personnel complete these forms appropriately and provide their own mobile phone numbers which are registered by the service providers in their name.

e) Declaration and attendance registers

Duly filled supervision declaration forms and attendance registers must be submitted to the Supervision Section in KNEC by the SCDE/SCXO/TSC Sub County Directors not later than one week after completion of the respective examination.

f) SOFT COPIES of the data prepared from correctly filled in Declaration forms and attendance registers should be e-mailed to si@knec.ac.ke, and not brought in either Flash disks, or CDs.

g) Any Supervisor and Invigilator who fails to sign accountability documents e.g declaration form and report on certificate of supervision will not be paid.

h) Procedure for Recruitment of Supervisors and Invigilators

During the recruitment, deployment and /or appointment of Supervisors and Invigilators the following procedure should be followed:-

i) one Supervisor should be appointed per examination centre with a minimum of 15 candidates;

ii) in the case of large examination centres with over 200 candidates, a second Supervisor may be nominated to be in charge of his/her own rooms and a group of Invigilators;

iii) Invigilators should be deployed on the basis of one Invigilator per examination room. An ideal examination room should have the capacity to accommodate twenty (20) candidates at a spacing of 1.22 meters on all sides.  Where a hall is used as an examination room, one Invigilator should be deployed for up to a maximum of forty (40) candidates. There should be no over deployment of invigilators in the examination centre, KNEC will NOT pay over recruited staff;

iv) Supervisors and Invigilators must not be deployed to supervise their own students and those in affiliated institutions. Swooping of Supervisors and Invigilators between colleges must not be allowed;

v) ensure that Supervisors and Invigilators are not allocated to the same Examination Centre for more than two consecutive years;

vi) Supervisors, Invigilators, Security Officers and Drivers should be posted within proximity of their duty stations so that they can commute to the identified examination and/or distribution centres. The Personnel deployed must not claim night-out allowances. The SCDE of the gazetted hardship areas should seek approval for any deployment of Supervisors, Invigilators, Security, Officers and Drivers that may require night out allowances to administer an examination;

i) the TSC Sub County Directors should vet the teachers in the database provided by KNEC and submit the following to KNEC with a copy to the Sub County Director of  Education;

j) an updated list of teachers who supervised and invigilated the examinations;

k) Lists showing the centres where Supervisors and Invigilators have been posted and a  summary of the following:-

i) number of Supervisors appointed;

ii) number of Invigilators appointed;

iii) number of candidates in the examination centre;

iv) number of examination centres used;

v) The Sub County Directors of Education should submit the following to KNEC

vi) number of Drivers used in distribution of examinations.

vii) number of Security Officers deployed in examination centres.

l) If possible two security officers should be deployed in an examination centre, except in areas prone to security lapses where more security officers can be deployed with the approval of KNEC. A report giving reasons why more than two security officers were used should be submitted to KNEC at the end of the exercise.

m) TSC Sub County Directors will be expected to post Supervisors and  Invigilators from the lists provided guided by the instructions given by KNEC

n) After the examination period, the data capturers should use information in the declaration form to prepare a list of all the Supervisors, Invigilators, Drivers and Security Officers indicating clearly their registered mobile phone number, national identification number and KRA PIN number;

o) Sub County Directors of Education should Summarize the information of all the agents stipulated above of their Sub County indicating their registered mobile number and national identification number KRA PIN number and submit to KNEC in both soft and hard copies;

p) Data captured for payment purposes must only be forwarded to KNEC in excel format. Information forwarded in word format shall not be processed, instead the data shall be sent back to the Sub County to be formatted and then emailed to KNEC before the claims are processed. This shall delay payment of such sub counties and should therefore be avoided.

q) Payments are normally based on the information forwarded to KNEC by the Sub County Directors of Education and the TSC Sub County Directors. In the past some payments have been made to wrong persons due to submission of wrong mobile numbers and information. Sub County Directors of Education and TSC Sub County Directors will be responsible for payments made to wrong persons as a result of submission of wrong mobile numbers and information from their sub counties. The information provided should be by the Clerk and data capturer recruited at the Sub County before it is submitted to KNEC.

r) Posting of Supervisors and Invigilators

i) It is important that distances traveled by Supervisors and Invigilators are minimized to increase efficiency and ensure examinations are conducted on time. This will help control the expenditure on the conduct of national examinations.

ii) Supervisors and Invigilators should be posted within proximity of the distribution and examination centres and work as commuters. However, Supervisors and Invigilators must not under any circumstances be allowed to choose a centre where they will serve or have vested interest. Any Supervisor/Invigilator that shows vested interest in any centre must be disqualified.

s) Night Out Allowance for Supervisors and Invigilators

Only under special circumstances will night-out allowance be considered for gazetted hardship areas provided that:-

i) there is a genuine case for deploying a Supervisor/Invigilator away from his/her working station and who cannot commute on daily basis;

ii) night-out allowance is confined to examination dates only;

iii) Teachers Service Commission (TSC) County Directors and TSC Sub County Directors should scrutinize the claims to ensure that the information given is accurate, especially with regard to the exact number of nights the claimant spent out of his/her working station as well as the actual distance between the working station and the new station;

iv) in all cases, the TSC County Directors and the TSC Sub County Directors should seek written authority from KNEC in advance giving names, reasons, number of nights, distances and expenditure involved.

t) Replacement of Supervisors and Invigilators

i) Any replacement of Supervisors and Invigilators should be done from the approved KNEC database.

ii) If fresh nominations are necessary, TSC Sub County Directors will appoint and deploy officers who meet the qualifications stipulated in this manual and forward their details to KNEC for registration.

iii) People who do not qualify must not be used as replacements.

u) Payments  of Supervisors and Invigilators

i) The Kenya National Examinations Council shall pay all the personnel involved in the administration of examination through mobile phones or any other method that it will deem as efficient and fast. All personnel involved should therefore ensure they provide KNEC with their registered mobile numbers, national identity card numbers, TSC/Personal numbers and KRA pin.

ii) The Kenya National Examinations Council will validate payment to be made to supervision and field officers through mobile money transfer mode to ensure that only intended clients are paid.

v) Payment for supervision exercise shall be done subject to the following:-

i) Examination having been conducted successfully in their respective examination centres where the officers were posted;

ii) Supervisors and invigilators having prevented cheating and impersonation at the centre, detected any such cases, and reported them to the Council;

iii) Documents, records and reports of supervision having been returned duly completed to the Council.  Honesty in making claims must be emphasized to all the field personnel;

iv) Provision of correct identification card number and mobile phone number which is registered by a mobile phone service provider;

v) The current allowances as per KNEC approved KNEC rates

NB: KCPE rates for supervisors, invigilators, security officers and drivers are flat rate for the days worked

w) After thorough consultations it was agreed that payment to Supervisors, Invigilators, Security officers and Drivers are pegged on specific number of days irrespective of the number of days worked as indicated here below:

x) Except as specified above, KNEC will not pay claims for:-

i) night-out;

ii) subsistence;

iii) lunches;

iv) hired vehicles;

v) vehicles belonging to Supervisors used as taxis;

vi) Supervisors and Invigilators who do not qualify;

vii) Supervisors whose examination centres show discrepancies between the numbers of answer scripts as indicated on the packets, and the actual numbers enclosed. Supervisors are expected to physically count and verify the number of answer scripts, then indicate on the return envelope;

viii) Supervisors, Invigilators, Drivers and Security Officers who do not fill in their details correctly. Names submitted to KNEC must match those registered with mobile service provider

y) All Supervisors and Invigilators should also be informed that KNEC will not pay any allowance to Supervisors/Invigilators who do not sign the supervision declaration form.

z) Disqualification Based on Making False Claims

Any personnel who infringe any of these conditions or the regulations for the conduct of 2016 KNEC examinations, or submit false or inflated claims will be deregistered, reported to their employer and may have criminal proceedings instituted against them as per the KNEC act No. 29 of 2012.

Transport

The County Director of Education (CDE) and the Sub County Director of Education (SCDE) will be responsible for all transport arrangements and should note that:-

a) Government, institutional or school transport should be used for the transportation of  examination materials;

b) Hired or personal vehicles must not be used.

Deployment of Security Officers, Drivers, Data Capturers and Clerks

a) Security officers should be deployed within their zones to enable them commute on a daily basis.

b) Drivers and Security Officers at the examination centres MUST sign the Declaration form. Any claims from personnel who have not signed the declaration form will not be honoured.

c) TSC Sub County Director should appoint one of the secretaries in the office as a data capturer to capture contracted professionals data. The data capturer will be given a flat rate as indicated below:

Sub County Director of Education should appoint one clerk to assist in handling the examination materials. The clerk will be paid per day.