Knec says 621 KCSE candidates were involved in exam misconduct

Some 621 candidates and nearly 200 schools were found engaging in malpractices during this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.

The details emerged at the administration of the national tests came to an end on Friday. Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) said that the marking of scrips of the 965,501 candidates began under a revamped system aimed at ensuring equity and eliminating potential biases.

The Sunday Standard established that for the first time, Knec implemented an anonymisation system for answer sheets. This means that markers will not know a candidate’s name, school, or region to eliminate any potential biases.

Instead, each answer booklet is tagged with a unique personal identifier, which will only be linked to a student after the marking process is complete.

“This is a game-changer for Kenya’s education system. We want every candidate to be evaluated based solely on the quality of their answers without any possibility of bias linked to their identity,” Knec chief executive David Njengere said.

The enhanced changes come at a time when the KCSE exam is on its tail end with the exit of the 2024 candidates leaving only three cohorts before the official end of the 8-4-4 system.

Education CS Julius Ogamba said the candidates involved in malpractice this year are from 198 schools.

He revealed that the malpractice cases included the use of unauthorised materials, such as mobile phones, collusion, sharing of examination papers on social media, and impersonation.

“Maintaining integrity in national exams is critical for upholding the credibility of our education system. Investigations into these incidents are ongoing, and stern action will be taken against those found culpable,” Ogamba said on Friday during an event to mark the end of the examination in Nakuru.

He, however, defended the integrity of the examination noting that the malpractice cases only represented 0.064 per cent of the 965,501 candidates who sat the examination.

Dr Njengere said that the marking exercise will involve 32,800 examiners and will take place in November and December—up from 29,876 in 2023—to ensure timely and accurate assessment of papers.

Ogamba also revealed that marking of the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) scripts was completed just 23 days after the candidates finished writing the test that replaced the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam.

Unlike KCSE which is marked by experienced tutors, the KPSEA assessment employs technology in the marking exercise using a machine that scans through the students’ answer selection. “KNEC now embarks on developing relevant reports for sharing with schools and learners by January 2025,” Ogamba said. The CS was non-committal on when KCSE candidates will receive their results.