Register Students below 13, Says Kipsang

This comes after a law that was enacted to make sure that pupils admitted in class one are 6 years old.

The PS said that the law will be put in effect come 2016 when the government will gazette it.

Parents had earlier complained that their children aged below 14 and 18 years were being barred by school heads from registering for KCPE and KCSE respectively.

In 2014, a report from the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) showed that more than 18,000 pupils aged 12 and below sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education.

TOO YOUNG

This means that majority of them were admitted in class one at the age 4 years and below.

However, the KNEC guidelines clearly state that the standard age for a pupil to sit KCPE is 13 or 14 years, basing on the fact that the child is admitted in class one at the age of six years.

According to this, a child is meant to sit for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education at the age of 16 years, which is too tender to posses National documents, as opposed to the recommended 18 years.

Parents take their children to school at a lower age and even go an extent of skipping class seven for those whom they consider bright.

By Musalia Wycliffe.