State plans merger of national examination centres to curb cheating

Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) candidate Esther Nyarawi from Mwingo Academy fills in her index number on a piece of paper during a rehearsal exercise ahead of their final examination last year. The Government has been working on a plan to merge national exam centres, a move that is likely to affect thousands of candidates. (PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD)

The Government has been working on a plan to merge national exam centres, a move that is likely to affect thousands of candidates.

The plan aims at consolidating examination centres for schools within a three-kilometre radius of each other. Officials estimate this could affect about 20 per cent of secondary schools, or roughly 1,400 mostly urban schools.

Authorities had planned to implement the measure this year, with the Ministry of Education on May 13 writing to all County Directors of Education asking them to assess primary and secondary schools that are registered as examination centres.

“We require that you propose centres that are close to each other and propose one that can possibly accommodate one or more nearby centres,” read the circular signed by Director General of Education Leah Rotich.

She clarified that it was “just a proposal”, but added “it should cover both primary and secondary schools that are registered as examination centres”, meaning if effected, candidates registered for both Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE) exams will be affected.

This year 952,445 and 577,079 candidates are registered for KCPE and KCSE respectively. Authorities hope that the merging would make it easier to administer exams to curb cheating and also, reduce costs.

But yesterday, it emerged that authorities had postponed the implementation of the plan to next year, partly, according to sources, because of fear it could fuel the wave of unrest sweeping across schools.

This is especially because of the anxiety among candidates who were to be moved from their familiar surrounding, and required to sit the exam in new environment.

Enough challenges

Sources at the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) said a section of schools had given indications of resistance to the plan, prompting its suspension.

“The council did not want anything that can fuel anxiety in schools. There are already enough challenges and it would be counterproductive to do it now,” said a source at Knec.

Contacted, Knec Chairman George Magoha yesterday said the idea was a great one, but its implementation would wait until next year.

“I can authoritatively say we shall not merge the centres this year. We shall consider that in subsequent years,” said Prof Magoha.

He explained that the council was currently engaged with ‘serious business’ of preparation for the examinations.

Yesterday, Ms Rotich acknowledged that the ministry was facilitating identification of the viable centres for merger.

“The plan was to merge small schools that have few candidates, and may struggle to get equipment for the examinations such as laboratories,” she said.

She said schools to be affected were those located within a three-kilometre radius from the bigger schools. “The idea was also to ensure smooth running of national examinations and close monitoring of candidates,” she said.

Rotich said the idea largely targeted secondary schools, but noted that primary schools had also been considered.

“About 20 per cent of the schools would have been affected and probably town schools, because schools in rural areas and hardship areas would be difficult to merge,” she said.

There are 7,000 secondary schools, which means the directive could have affected 1,400.

Some primary school head teachers and secondary school principals who spoke to The Standard yesterday said they had prepared to roll out the directive.

“We met the national officials from the Education ministry yesterday (Monday) and we have been told we will have three examination centres in Isiolo town,” said a principal from Isiolo Central.

In Isiolo town, the number of examination centres will reduce to three from 40 secondary schools.

“We have three centres in Isiolo town alone. St Mary’s Girls, Bulla Waso and Sacred Heart will have one centre for examination,” said another teacher. The senior teacher added: “The ministry came up with yet other weird policy, and I don’t know how it will work out.”