It is now clear that examination results for the 1.2 million candidates who sat the just concluded Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination will be released week.
This comes after Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha revealed that marking of the multiple-choice scripts will be concluded today. Marking has been expedited owing to the optical mark recognition (OMR) machine, which electronically scores the papers.
The optical mark recognition (OMR) machines capture marked data from candidates’ answer sheets using specialised scanning.
How OMR Works
The machines work with a dedicated scanning device that shines a beam of light on the paper. The contrasting reflection at predetermined positions on a page is used to detect marked areas as they reflect less light than blank areas of the paper.
Kiswahili Insha and English composition
Magoha said that the next five days will be utilised to mark Kiswahili Insha and English composition. The two papers are still marked manually.
Other than marking candidates scripts, the OMR machines are also used to speed up the tallying of Kiswahili Insha and English Composition marks, which were previously done manually by examiners.
Once the examiners have finished marking Insha and Composition scripts, they pass over the papers to the new machine, which will do the electronic tallying of marks in record time.
Magoha who exuded confidence in the technology that is making marking easier and faster, noted that candidates will know how they performed next week.
“Anytime between Wednesday and Saturday (next week). Depending on His Excellency the president’s availability, we should be able to tell our children how they have performed,” said Prof Magoha.