Tears over cancelled KCPE results

By Standard Team

It is a New Year shocker for hundreds of last year’s KCPE candidates after realising that their results were cancelled over cheating and other examination irregularities.

From Voi to Busia and Nyandarua to Siaya, distraught parents were coming to terms with the news yesterday that their children’s years of toil may yield nothing after all.

Some candidates’ results were annulled, while others had nothing for subjects such as English, social studies and mathematics.

When Education minister Sam Ongeri released KCPE results on Tuesday, he said 1,835 candidates in 65 centres had been disqualified due to examination irregularities. This was an increase from 2007’s cited the use of the mobile phone though it had been banned in examination rooms. He singled out unruliness at refugee examination centres, saying youths shouted answers to candidates.

Yesterday, sadness enveloped many schools where candidates’ results had been cancelled. In Nyandarua, English results for 97 candidates at Busara Forest View Academy were withheld over cheating.

Of the 107 candidates who sat KCPE last year, only 10 received all the results. Distraught parents and school manager Wangui Karanja met at a Nairobi hotel over the cancellation.

Mrs Karanja denied knowledge of cheating at the school, and vowed to petition the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) over the results.

In 2007, 51 of 108 candidates at Busara scored more than 400 marks of the possible 500. But in last year’s KCPE, only seven got 400 marks and above, while 17 scored below 300.

Ms Njeri Gatama, a parent, said her 13-year-old daughter, Christine Muthoni, burst into tears after checking her results through SMS.

"She had zero in English. Her life has now been ruined," the mother lamented.

At a loss

Another parent, Mr Philip Wanjohi Wambugu, said he was shocked when he was notified that his children, Solomon Gichura and Claudia Wairimu, had failed in English.

"I am at a loss. I do not know what will happen to my children," the father, a director of Planning at the East African Commission in Arusha, said.

A parent, Ms Millicent Odeny, vowed: "We are prepared to fight to the bitter end. This is very unfair. We will go to court if we don’t get a hearing. We cannot take this lying down."

Her daughter, Nicole Anyango, scored 343 marks.

"During the examinations, I do not know what happened. What I know is no teacher was allowed into out halls. There was no cheating. I want my results back," said Anyango amid tears.

The parents claimed that primary school children could not cheat, saying they were being punished for KNEC’s mistakes.

At Voi’s St Kelvin Academy, the results of 76 candidates have been cancelled. Angry students and parents stormed the school and confronted teachers, demanding results.

District Education Officer Geoffrey Ochieng said the results were annulled due to cheating. But a senior teacher at the school said KNEC had sent a letter saying the results had been withheld.

In North Eastern Province, the results of 1,089 candidates in 16 examination centres have been cancelled.

In Lagdera District, results in six centres, among them five refugee camps with more than 800 candidates, have been cancelled.

In Mandera District, five schools with more than 60 candidates have been affected. Local Provincial Director of Education Pascal Makiti said: "It’s sad that such a huge number of children have been disqualified due to irregularities."

Irregularities

The PDE said of the province’s 11 districts, only four — Ijara, Wajir South, Wajir North and Wajir West — were unaffected.

Nyanza had the highest number of affected schools — 19. In Gucha, results of 31 candidates were cancelled. At Riamanono Primary, 16 candidates were disqualified over irregularities in the Social Studies paper.

In Gucha South, results of 14 candidates at Ichuni SDA Primary School were cancelled for colluding in the Kiswahili paper.

In Migori, it was all tears for eleven candidates whose results were cancelled. The pupils were from Nyasoko and Malera in Suba West.

In Bondo, there was bitterness over the cancellation of results for 20 candidates at Mother Teresa Primary School. Parents protested and demanded an investigation.

In Busia, angry parents and candidates camped at St Kelvin Academy following the cancellation of results.

"We paid a lot of money for the school to prepare our children for the examinations," said a parent who declined to give his name.

Reports by Amos Kareithi, Renson Mnyamwezi, Renson Buluma, Kenan Miruka, Nick Oluoch, Adow Jubat and George Olwenya