Best wishes to all sitting this year's KCPE

Today marks the start of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination across the country. To orientate students and allow them to get a real taste of the exam atmosphere, rehearsals were held across the country yesterday as has been customary over the years.

While everything possible should be done to ensure no hitches occur that would disadvantage some students, like late arrivals of exam papers or lack of exam materials, it is also important that the security aspect is given priority; particularly in trouble areas where bandits seeking attention might be attempted to disrupt the exams.

In reality, having undergone rigorous eight years of primary schooling, there is no reason for students to panic. Exams are just a measure to gauge how well a student understood his or her teachers and should be taken as such. The temptation to steal and over reliance on higher grades tends to put pressure on students, with the downside that the pressure sometimes causes bright students to perform poorly. This need not be the case.

In 2016 and 2017, there were no cases of cheating in KCPE, and despite claims that a few schools had conspired to steal exams, the clean slate should be continued in 2018 so that nothing is allowed to put a damp on celebrations when the results come out in December.

The 2017 results were an improvement on the 2016 results. Thus, while this newspaper wishes all sitting these exams success, it is important that students strive to post even better results this year.