KNEC statement on launch of EARC - Education Assessment Resource Centre

 The Kenya National Examinations Council is honored to host you on this very auspicious occasion of launching the Resource Centre. As was expounded in the theme song, and as Mr. Odongo has said, the running theme of this Resource Centre is Transforming Assessments to Enhance Education Quality, Equity, and Inclusion.

As a country, I think so far we can boast of having improved our access to education to appreciable levels. However, we are still facing challenges with quality, equity, and inclusion. This Resource Centre will work together with other entities in the different arms of education to ensure that we begin focusing our energies and attention on how we can improve quality, equity, and inclusion in education in this country.

The Resource Centre seeks to provide a platform for, among other things, utilizing the vast assessment and examination results database to provide evidence-driven policies. I think that’s a key role that this Resource Centre will be taking up—so that as we make policies and decisions in education, they are based on the evidence and the data that we are holding.

We have a huge database here that goes back, to the 1920s.

When I came here as CEO, I was shocked to find results going back to 1927 sitting in our archives. Those results are no longer of direct use to us—because the persons who sat those exams have since left us. I don’t think there is anyone whose results go back to 1927 who is still with us. But we can convert those results into useful data that can tell us: where are we coming from as a country? What have we done right? What have we done wrong? And where do we need to go?

As the country continues to implement the Competency-Based Curriculum, with a major transition anticipated in January 2026, the Centre will provide several capacity-building and professional development courses in Competency-Based Assessment.

PS, after this, we are going to showcase to you that indeed, this is not just a ribbon-cutting event. We already have these programs in place, and some people have already started to access them. We want to encourage, particularly, all teachers in senior school to start accessing these programs as early as today.

If you are a leader in an institution—a school principal in a secondary school—we have a program tailored for you. If you are a parent with a child in Grade 9, and your child is going to transition to Grade 10 next year, we have a program tailored for you. So, no one needs to remain in the dark anymore. The Resource Centre has something available for all these stakeholders.

We also have programs for quality assurance officers, because they are our agents in the field. They need to have a solid understanding of Competency-Based Assessment so they can support sound implementation.

KNEC has already benefited from two capacity-building programs for all our staff, which were conducted jointly with the NFVR. I can proudly say that these are very high-quality programs, and our staff are now on the right footing as far as implementing CBA is concerned.

To provide a platform for all stakeholders in educational assessment for reflection and experience sharing, the Centre will conduct an annual symposium. We have already done this in the last two years—so once again, this is not just a ribbon-cutting event. We have already implemented this, and it will continue to be an annual event where we bring all educational assessment practitioners to reflect together with us on where we are and where we need to go.