Knec now reduces the minimum KCSE, KCPE exams number of candidates per centre to 30

May 31, 2025 Hillary Kangwana

The Kenya National Examinations Council, Knec, has revised the minimum number of candidates required per centre for the National Examinations. In the new guidelines, the minimum number of KCSE and KCPE candidates will now be thirty, 30.

The new changes will affect the hosting of schools for KCPE and KCSE examinations.

“During the conduct of the 2021 KCPE and KCSE Examinations, all schools with less than thirty (30) candidates will have to be hosted. This is a departure from the previous number of forty (40) candidates that had been communicated earlier.” Says Knec via the latest circular.

Earlier, KNEC had sent out a circular referenced KNEC/GEN/EA/KCPE/KCSE/HOSTING/2021/02 to All Head Teachers of Primary Schools and Principals of Secondary Schools presenting candidates for 2021 KCPE and KCSE from both private and public schools.

The Council had requested that centres with less than forty ( 40) candidates be hosted by an Examination Centre with more than forty ( 40) candidates during the 2021 KCPE and KCSE Examination.

New registration guidelines for KCPE, KCSE exams.

Following consultation with the Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) under the guidance of the Ministry of Education (MoE), the following issues were agreed upon:

There shall be no registration of new examination centres with less than thirty (30) candidates for both public and private schools;
All primary and secondary schools from both public and private with less than thirty (30) candidates will be hosted by centres of their choice during the 2021 KCPE and KCSE Examinations;
This policy will not apply to special need Special need schools will be expected to conduct examinations at their examination centres;
Schools with less than thirty (30) candidates and are more than 5 kilometres away from the nearest examination centre must seek special approval from the Council before August 15th, 2021 to conduct examination in their centres.
The host school and the hosted school(s) should be located within the same sub Both the host school and the hosted school(s) should be served from the same distribution centre (container);
During the conduct of examination, the host Head Teacher/Principal will be the one authorized to collect examination materials from the container, coordinate the conduct and return of the candidates answer scripts to the container during each examination day; and
All Sub County Directors of Education (SCDEs) are required to submit the list of host examination centres and hosted examination centres for March/April 2021 KCPE and KCSE examination by August 15th, 2021.