Nairobi — The National Assembly Education Committee is advocating for an amendment to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Act to allow pregnant candidates who give birth in hospitals to be exempted from sitting for their national exams.

According to the proposal, they would instead be granted the opportunity to take supplementary exams at a later date.

Following a meeting with officials from KNEC, the Committee led by Tinderet Member of Parliament Julius Melly, observed that the candidates are not in the optimal physical or emotional state to perform well in their national exams.

"We have discussed with KNEC that they need to come up with a better policy to ensure sick candidates and those young girls who have delivered will be offered supplementary exams when they miss their national exams," he stated.

He argued that such practices are inherently unjust to the candidates and should be officially eliminated.

"How can you deliver an exam paper to a young girl who has just given birth or someone who just woke up from surgery in a hospital?"

In addition, the Committee cautioned school administrators at both the primary and secondary levels against withholding students' examination certificates after they have completed their national exams.