Ministry vows to deal firmly with exam cheats

By Michael Wesonga and Augustine Oduor

Education Minister, Sam Ongeri has told candidates whose results were nullified to launch appeals before the end of month.

The minister said the ministry will not relent on dealing with students caught cheating in national examinations.

"They must, however, note that there will be no two ways about instances of fully established collusion in exam cheating," he remarked.

Prof Sam ONGERI: There will be no two ways about instances of fully established collusion in exam cheating [Photo: File/Standard]

He wondered why affected candidates appealed through their representatives by a memorandum in Parliament instead of personally at the Kenya National Examinations Council.

This came as Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) Secretary Paul Wasanga defended the administration of exams body even as members of parliament push for a forensic audit.

He insisted that the process is watertight from the time the questions are set to the time they are delivered to police armories.

But MPs would hear none of it as they insisted that the credibility of national examinations is at stake. At the centre of the storm is why results of 1,600 candidates were canceled in Garissa.

Last week, MPs led by Dujis legislator, Aden Duale demanded that an audit of results of national examinations be carried out to cover past five years to ascertain their authenticity.

Also being questioned is why the results of a candidate who died long before the examinations were written had results.

But on Sunday, Wasanga told The Standard that although many people are involved in setting of questions none of them have an idea of the final paper.

"Several teachers may set several questions from one topic which are finally sent to the question bank. But the final question is picked by a machine based on knowledge, composition, application, synthesis, analysis and evaluation," he said.

The chief examiner ruled out any possibility of leakage at this point.

Printed overseas

He said printing is done overseas and papers preserved with tamper-proof seal. "The process here is computer to paper. They are packed in polybags and any leakage here means slitting the entire package which is not easy to seal," he said.

The final stage he said is when Knec receives the examinations from the printer. "The examination papers come when they are already packed. The only thing we do is to categorise them per school and as per the timetable schedule."

Once the examinations leave Knec to the regions, they are under the custody of the police, district education officer, the education examination officer of the zone and the supervisors.

"The 170 Knec officials do not have direct control at that point," he said

Wasanga said incase of examination leakage occurs at Knec, the process is stopped immediately and new ones administered as investigations are launched, as was the case in 1992.

And speaking in Eldoret at Moi Girls’ High School prize-giving day, Prof Ongeri stressed the need to maintain integrity in examination process.