Why cheating in exams may not end any time soon

The introduction of the Module II programme – also referred to as parallel degree courses – in the late 1990s to provide access to university education and make use of education funds, which usually ended up in foreign universities, is what commercialised education and fuelled cheating in exams.

In those days, I had just joined the University of Nairobi and many things were going wrong. Module II students who had attained fewer marks than regular ones were admitted to competitive courses such as law and medicine just because their parents could afford it. Hard-working students from backgrounds of lesser means had to pursue courses forced down their throats by the Joint Admissions Board.

Underpaid lecturers began shuttling between universities to make an extra coin and this greatly compromised the quality of education at the institutions. Literally, university education was sold to the highest bidder and this led to student strikes of the late 90s that saw many of them suspended, some expelled and others killed for defending quality and nobility of education.

One of the classes in which I enrolled, economics, was large, taking in over 200 students and could only be hosted at the popular Multi Purpose Hall or the expansive Taifa Hall. Students further away from the podium had to strain to hear what the lecturer was saying or was scribbling on the board. It was even more difficult to supervise an exam in this course and cheating was the norm.

The class of Literature had fewer students and fine lecturers, one of them being Dr Fred Matiangi, the current Education Cabinet secretary. Dr Matiang’i loved his subject so much that sometimes the two morning hours allocated for his lesson were not enough and he asked us to carve an extra hour from our sleep and begin our class at 7am instead of 8am.

To our amazement, we often found him waiting for us. His unrivalled commitment to teaching and thought-provoking lessons on morality made us desire to learn more and also to aspire to higher ideals. Apparently, cheating was not as rampant in literature as it was in other courses because exams usually involved analysing texts, plays or poems.

Perhaps that is why Dr Matiang’i finds himself at odds with our education system, which is more focussed on making money and less on providing quality education. Whereas his recent order for a ban on satellite campuses is, for instance, well intended, it has rubbed some section of the highly commercialised system that has sacrificed education standards at the altar of greed the wrong way.

It should be noted that the people who disallow a “B” student from pursuing a law degree are the same ones who readily admits a “C” student to take the same course, at least those who can pay for it. But it usually costs a leg and arm to pursue the so-called parallel courses and some students are tempted to cheat in the exam in the hope that they will obtain the required grades to be admitted to the less expensive regular courses.

Whereas students cannot escape blame for exam cheating, the State bears the largest responsibility for the vice for creating systems that have made pursuit of higher education an end in itself. As long as these systems are not overhauled, half-baked graduates from prestigious universities will continue to flood the job market.