How Knec marks KCPE exams

HOW KCPE IS MARKED:

The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, KCPE, exams are the easiest to mark. It takes the Kenya National Examinations Council, KNEC, a very short period to mark the marked scripts.

The Optical Mark Recognition, OMR scanners capture marked data from candidates’ answer sheets.

OMR then shines a beam of light on the paper. The contrasting reflection at predetermined positions on a page is then used to detect marked areas as they reflect less light than the blanks.

The marked areas are then compared against the fed marking scheme and the score is given for every correct matching.

At the end, tallies are computed and results submitted into the tallying server. This happens within a fraction of a second.

This simple technology deployed for KCPE should be adopted by IEBC for our elections. You pick ballot paper; candidate box is shaded in pencil; insert into OMR scanner set to display and transmit results at vote closure; save time from tedious and erroneous manual vote counting.

What happens to areas that are not properly erased and another point on the sheet is marked?

The two areas (the erased and the newly marked) have different densities of reflection. The more dense point will be used to award the score during scanning.