The Index Numbers used to register candidates for national primary and secondary examinations will soon be abolished.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i yesterday said his ministry would instead introduce a number for students to use throughout their lives to register for examinations.
Dr Matiang’i, who spoke while releasing this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams at Shanzu High School in Mombasa yesterday, said the President has allowed them to use the ID numbers to register students from primary to university.
“The President said we should do away with the Index Numbers and embrace use of students numbers. The students will be expected to carry these numbers throughout their education lives. The numbers will be stored in the education system and will help in monitoring and identifying our students,” said Matiang’i.
Meanwhile, Matiang’i expressed concerns over the fall in this year’s performance, where only 141 candidates, out of the over 500,000, managed an A plain compared to previous years.
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He said the new system will give a true reflection of a student’s performance and ability to pursue a career in the university.
“We want to eliminate the madness where universities admit students into certain courses because they scored As only for these students to drop out,” said Matiang’i.
He said he is ready to carry on with education reforms that have seen exams marked within one month. “The Government is determined to reform the education system to produce quality labour force that is productive to the country.”
Matiang’i added: “The ministry has managed to eliminate all the cartels that are normally busy during the marking of exams to determine the number of As an institution should get. We have completed two major exams successfully this year and we have eliminated the irresponsibility with which we have worked where we have had to wait for months to release exams.”
The Cabinet Secretary said they had managed to achieve the reforms by embracing technology, which made it possible to release results in record time.
“The ICT ministry set up 25 marking centres which helped transmit the results live and fast online after marking had been done. These results are genuine. I can vouch for this year’s result as there were no irregularities,” Matiang’i said, noting that they hired 74,810 professionals to mark the exams.
Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) chairman George Magoha said: “These results are a true reflection of how rotten the education system has been.”
Prof Magoha added: “We will sustain these reforms to ensure there will be no more cheating and that results are released on time. I am disappointed with how some schools have be conducting exams but time is up for those who have been misleading candidates into exams leaks.”
“It is a shame that 50 per cent of the 500 students who enrol into medicine school end up dropping out from the course yet they had scored As in KCSE.”
Magoha warned students to stop the ‘nonsense’ that everyone must score an A to pursue their careers in college or universities.
“You don’t need an A to get on with your life. Once you get over 50 per cent, you can do anything including medicine,” said Magoha.
He added: “We admit over 500 students into the school of medicine and half of them drop out because they are fake. Why would one get out of a science subject yet they scored As? This nonsense has to stop.”
