Results for 1,309 students have been cancelled in the just-released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination results, owing to irregularities.
"The number of cases of irregularities has reduced because as you remember, last year we had 4,519," said Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha while releasing this year's KCSE results.
Prof Magoha also said that while the overall incidents of exam cheating had reduced, some forms of malpractice had seen an increase. These include impersonation and the use of cellphones.
Prof Magoha, in November, gave a clean bill of health to the credibility of the 2019 KCSE, terming incidents that were reported as failed attempts at cheating, most of which involved impersonation.
"Our teachers have done a fantastic job. There were no witnessed cheating cases in terms of early exam leakages whatsoever," Prof Magoha had said, a statement he reiterated when releasing the KCSE today.
"The issue of exam leakage is past tense... the KCSE has witnessed no iota of leakage."
Prof Magoha attributed the said success to measures that the ministry had taken to curb cheating. 300 schools had been highlighted as hotspots of exam cheating.
A total of 21 incidents of malpractice were reported in this year's KCSE. The most shocking case was perhaps the Eastleigh one that saw 27 candidates arrested for allegedly attempting to cheat in the exams.
In 2018, 3427 students had their results cancelled over alleged malpractice. 191 people were arrested in the same year for their involvement in cheating.
