CS George Magoha launches fresh crack down on cartels as exams near

Education CS George Magoha addresses students, teachers and parents at Agenga Mixed Secondary School in Nyatike, Migori County on Friday. [Caleb Kingwara, Standard]

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha yesterday warned parents, teachers and candidates against falling victim to cartels hawking fake national examination papers. 

With two months to the start of the national examinations, Prof Magoha said the papers will be tightly and jealously guarded.

The CS said his office and the Kenya National Examination Council would move the local examination monitoring centre in a bid to nail those peddling fake exam papers.

He was speaking at Agenga Secondary School in Nyatike, Migori County. He said the decision to move the centre from Kisii to Migori followed information about an exam cheating syndicate in the county.

“We are closely monitoring Migori because KCSE results for over ten schools were cancelled last year and several candidates were affected. We don’t want this to happen again,” Prof Magoha said.

“Last year, we concentrated on Kisii. This year, we are moving to Migori and those behind this syndicate should be warned.”

The CS confirmed that there was an exam leakage syndicate in Migori, with its headquarters in Rongo sub county. Some members of the syndicate, he added, operated from Lake Victoria islands where they hawk fake examination papers.

“The syndicate in Migori is domiciled in Rongo. They are collecting money from unsuspecting parents and candidates with the promise of giving them leakages. Some of those in this syndicate are teachers. I want to warn them to stop it,” Magoha said.

Prof Magoha said the examination irregularities in the Migori schools were unfortunate and must not be allowed to happen again. “I must admit that everybody failed. Even those of us in the ministry failed in stopping the irregularities. It was a collusion and it will not happen again,” he said.

He warned parents and children against obsession with going to university to an extent of being duped to buy fake examination papers, with the hope of attaining the entry mark.

“This craze of going to universities is taking a toll on us. Everyone is special in his or her own way. Even those who fail to join universities are important in our society and should be proud of themselves,” he said.

Magoha, who was accompanied by Nyatike MP Tom Odege, raised concerns over the rise in teenage pregnancies across the country and attributed this to parental neglect.

Magoha visited Nyabisawa Girls High School which was affected by KCSE irregularities last year.

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