Villagers, cooks help in exam cheating

After the teachers’ strike, teachers, students and examination bodies are now preparing for national examinations.

This will be for those Standard Eight pupils and Form Four students countrywide. But the question remains, will exam cheating be a thing of the past?

The war against cheating in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations is far from being won even with the coming of the KNEC Bill. Exam cheating has evolved into an intricate web that involves various individuals who support. 

The web includes principals, teachers, students, parents, exam officials, and communities around schools.

It is a process that begins at the end of the year when the previous exam session is over. During the period, parents of the pre-candidates are called and briefed on the charges, which eventually become part of the fees.

Some principals choose friendly supervisors and invigilators who can easily be compromised.

The money collected is used to bribe them to blind them as cheating goes on unabated.

Even cooks, security men and grounds men are not left behind. They are used to slip written answers into the exam rooms. Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has a tall order.

 It must increase surveillance by planting its officers in all the schools in the country in order to tame exam cheating. Or cheating remains a big problem.

Cosmas Maruko, Usenge-Bondo