Threats, deep fears as exam credibility question emerges

The weight of the threat posed to this year’s national examinations came to the fore this week, even as the Government put on a brave face that it is prepared.

Stern words of caution, veiled threats and even name-calling marked the high-level stakeholders meeting called by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed to discuss examinations.

The stakeholders meeting brought to the fore the silent pressure to sustain credibility of examinations and the threat posed by cartels.

Amina led top education officials in raising the alarm on a fresh plot by some people to dent the credibility of examinations.

Close schools

She even vowed to shut down schools whose students, teachers or staff will engage in any form of examination malpractice and threatened to jail some.

“The Ministry will close down any school found to engage in any form of cheating. Culprits in the affected schools will also face the full force of the law,” she said.

“Each and every one of us must effectively play their role to ensure the exercise will be fraud-free, efficient, successful and most importantly, credible.”

She issued a general caution to all the sector players, including parents who were roundly accused of collecting money to purchase examinations.

Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) chairman George Magoha said the Council is aware that some schools are collecting cash to compromise examinations.

Fleecing schemes

“We know some schools in Nyanza, Western, here in Nairobi and the Coast that are collecting money. We are watching you and we shall see what you will do because no examination will leak,” Prof Magoha said.

But the most open statement came from Amina when she cautioned of emergence of new cartels.

“We must focus especially on outstanding challenges, namely the re-emergence of examination cheating cartels,” she said.

In her caution, Amina said her Ministry has taken seriously the claims that some people are asking parents to contribute money to buy “examination questions” this year.

“I appeal to parents and students not to be misled or duped into these fleecing schemes. It is impossible for anyone to breach the security systems we have in place to access examination material, in whatever form,” Amina said.

County education directors, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) county directors, teachers' associations, unions and private sector players attended the meeting.

Some 1.7 million candidates have been registered to sit the examinations. Of these, 1,060,703 candidates will sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), while 664,585 will write the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia singled out Ortum Secondary School in West Pokot. She said students protested in the school, demanding that the former principal who was transferred under the delocalisation process be brought back.

“The students said the current principal has denied them oxygen. We are investigating to know what type of oxygen this is,” Ms Macharia said.

The statement unearthed the pressure from candidates to access examination material, pushing parents and teachers to collude.

Teachers facing dismissal

Ms Macharia reprimanded unprofessional teachers who conspire to steal examinations and cautioned that those found culpable will be dismissed.

She said 60 teachers who were are facing dismissal from the teaching service, following their role in last year’s examinations malpractice that saw results of 1,200 candidates cancelled.

Prof Magoha accused teachers of sneaking wrong answers to the candidates. He said some 302 students had similar answers, all of which were wrong.

“Even bright students who had written correct answers deleted them and inserted the wrong answers,” Magoha said.