Yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i carried out a purge at the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) aimed at restoring credibility to the country's national examinations.
Last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination was marred by claims of widespread leakage. Consequently, the results of at least 5,000 students who sat that exam were cancelled, double the number in 2014. When copies of exam papers were circulated on social media, the least the country expected from Knec was mass resignation.
That the exams body needed a root and branch change was never in doubt, it was a matter of when not if. In one year, cheating had gone up by 70 per cent. Something had to be done before things got out of hand. While releasing last year’s KCSE results, Dr Matiang'i ordered for investigations. The findings of that investigation vindicate the fears expressed by stakeholders in the education sector; that complicity, irregularities and illegitimate activities within Knec and the entire education fraternity have conspired to create fertile grounds for the theft of examination papers that then got sold to students.
This practice has ruined schools and killed the future of students whose results have had to be cancelled. Examination cheating undermines years of hard work and sacrifice put in by parents, teachers and students. It undermines the trust in merit. Cheating kills the wonderful spirit of competing. The psychological effect of exam cancellation on parents and students has in some cases, caused suicide. Gratifyingly, Matiangi appears to have had his finger on the pulse of the nation. In one fell swoop, he has sought to reclaim Kenya's status as an academic giant in the region.
No doubt, despite huge investment, standards have worryingly dropped. Employers report of graduates with little or no problem-solving skills despite admirable degree certificates.
Looked at it broadly, a compromised exam process is symptomatic of a rotten education system. And therefore getting rid of the Knec chiefs is one step no less significant, that was needed to fix a rotten education system. More needed to be done to restore confidence in the exams.
Indeed, a compromised exam system tells a lot more: it speaks about an education system that glorifies grades rather than skills and knowledge. Where rote learning is promoted in place of practical and logical application of skills and knowledge. In these circumstances, learning becomes an endless endeavour to pass exams and not to acquire critical thinking skills to solve practical problems in life and at the workplace.
To beat the system, school administrators go to any lengths to ensure students get good grades. Some like in private schools, register students in public schools to maintain high grades. Sadly, that has become the bane of the 8-4-4 system of education introduced in the country to much acclaim in 1985. Doing away with school-ranking was one way of addressing the problem.
Overhauling Knec is another. The need to overhaul a curriculum that many agree is exam-oriented at the expense of other crucial aspects of learning is another. In a way, this could alleviate the urgency to seek shortcuts to make better grades. That is in a work in progress. Matiang'i owes it to Kenya to ensure that also is achieved.
