KNEC Addresses Grade 1, 2, 3 LCBE Portal Issues as Deadline is near

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has upped efforts to solve the issues concerning their LCBE portal.

KNEC has been criticized recently by some primary school teachers over a system that is unresponsive and slowing down the whole process.

The examiner has now moved to solve the issues following many complaints over what many primary teachers have seen as a poor system that does not take scores of learners.

Most Primary school teachers said that the system is frustrating and only allows learners from Classes 5, 6, and 7’s scores to be uploaded without any errors but not allowing entry of scores for Grades 1, 2 and 3.

The teachers claim that the system showed a server error whenever an upload of scores was made for Grades 1, 2 and 3.

KNEC has now assured teachers that they are working tirelessly to have the system working properly without any fuss.

“Following numerous concerns from teachers over uploading of LCBE assessment scores, our ICT team has picked up the issues and are now working on them to smoothen the process of uploading scores,” said KNEC.

What is still worrying teachers is that the examiner did not reveal when the system shall be up and running without any hitches.

The assessments targeted Grades 1, 2, 3 and Classes 5,6,7 began on 18^th January and ended on 22^nd January.

KNEC said that the main aim of the assessments is to provide information on the possible gaps in learning among learners following the closure of schools due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Also the assessments would help in suggestion of the necessary interventions to be put in place to address the gaps as learners’ progress through their second and third terms of their academic year.

Schools are required to submit the scores of the learners through an online portal provided by the examiner.

KNEC set the timelines of uploading the scores of learners’ scores that will happen from 25^th January to 19^th February 2021.

Teachers are still expecting that KNEC extends the deadline for submitting scores online after the issues that have plagued the system.

The examiner said that Learner’s scores should be entered online directly onto the LCBE portal.

In previous times when Grade 4 and Class 8 scores were being submitted KNEC allowed an offline method of uploading scores where schools would fill an excel file with scores and then upload the scores on the portal.

KNEC even allowed schools to send the duly filled excel file via email address it had given schools.

However, with the current assessment, that is not the case for non-candidate classes.

Issues with the system have been experienced before when LCBE assessment scores are submitted.

As teachers were submitting the scores of Grades 4 and Class 8 scores, they complained of the system being slow to take up scores which led to KNEC coming up with a simpler way of getting the scores.

“It has come to the attention of KNEC that the uploading exercise has been faced with challenges, which have slowed the process of uploading,” KNEC CEO Mercy Karogo had said through a circular.