The level of systematic cheating in national examinations is an outrage. The matter takes a more sinister dimension because the cheating does not just involve students — it involves senior officials the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), the police, Principals and teachers.
In essence, it involves all stakeholders who have been mandated to manage national examinations in Kenya. The ramifications of our investigations are mind boggling. It means these stakeholders have mortgaged the lives of hundreds of thousands of students whose very future is determined by the results of these “doctored” examinations.
To appreciate the of gravity of this problem, a synopsis of the CID findings is essential. In essence, the senior officials of KNEC make copies of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination papers which they then sell to head teachers for millions of shillings.
The investigative authorities say they have established that one school in Mombasa County routinely buys examination papers from KNEC, and then loads these costs onto its fees so that each examination candidate can have access to leaked sets of papers. And in their investigation, they report that a school Principal was found with leaked papers and was arrested. But in a strange twist, other head teachers got together and fund-raised to have the Principal released from police custody. The Principal was never charged in a court of law, even though prima facie evidence was established that a crime had been committed. And to demonstrate an element of collusion, the results of the school he headed were never cancelled.
The scope of this evidence is negligible compared to the sheer scale of cheating that goes on, says Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i who sounded the alarm over examination fraud.
The question that now begs is; how much did previous Cabinet Ministers/Secretaries and Permanent/Principal Secretaries know about this racket that has been going on well before 2011 when the investigations began?
And why is it that they never acted on reports of cheating from whistleblowers? One whistleblower even told police her life had been threatened. What do these actions say about our examination system, and what happens to those students who narrowly failed to make the grade because they were not presented with leaked examination material?
These questions will continue to linger on for many years. What we cannot run away from is that we are running a shambolic education system and our future generation of citizens will be the worse for it. Therefore, the government must conclude investigations on exam fraud and punish perpetrators.
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