Kodiaga Prison penalised for cheating in 2014 KCPE exam

Fifteen inmates at Kodiaga Prison are among the over 1,700 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates who had their results cancelled for cheating.

The yearly celebrations at the facility every December during the release of the KCPE exams results were not witnessed as only three of the candidates received their Kiswahili results.

However, the best candidate scored 368 marks out of 500. The facility management expressed confidence that the candidates would have scored higher had they received the Kiswahili results.

A letter from the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) to the facility explained that the examiners discovered that the candidates had colluded in the said paper.

Officer-in-charge of Education at the institution, Chief Inspector Wilson Tunoi said the facility management will investigate the incident internally so as to avoid similar incidents in future.

"The institution will recover from the shock and forge ahead with the main objective of the school, which is to promote basic education and socialisation," said Mr Tunoi.

CANDIDATE MORALE

The facility, which gives opportunity for the inmates to further their education has been one of its kind among Kenyan prisons.

This is the first time Kodiaga Prison has been penalised for cheating since it started administering national examinations in 2002.

"It is always a big blow to the teachers and candidates when a candidate fails to get examination results. We admit that the cancelled results have really affected our morale," said Tunoi.

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi indicated during the release of the results that languages had more cases of cheating compared to other subjects.

However, reports that Knec may allow candidates whose results were cancelled join Form One if they qualify for minimum entry requirement has given hope to the inmates.

Tunoi said the KCPE results were a representation of the projection of most candidates except for the missing Kiswahili marks, which have affected the mean score.

Pius Otieno, one of the inmates who got his full results, managed 365 marks to emerge second best in the institution.

Otieno, who had projected to get over 400 marks, has to contend with what he achieved and is focused on joining Form One.

The convict, serving a 15-year jail-term, dropped out of school in Standard Seven in 2005 to engage  in odd jobs.