‘Militant’ handling of exams worries parents and learners

A student prays before a KSCE examination. Some schools are likely to claim they were publicly victimised long before examinations kicked off. [File, Standard]

One of the rules the 14-year-olds sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education is a warning against damaging the examination materials.

“Any person who willfully or maliciously damages examination material will be in violation of Section 30 of the KNEC Act and the penalty will be imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding Sh5 million or both.”

While it is not unusual for the government to issue such stern warnings to deter crime - in this case cheating - it is the militaristic manner in which this year’s national exams are being handled by the State that has set tongues wagging.

For the last one month, the government has been on an over drive in its anti-cheating propaganda you would think the KCPE and KCSE examinations are impending wars.

From tough talk by top government officials whose mandate touched the examinations, this year’s candidates have heard it all.

Dire consequences

On Wednesday President Uhuru Kenyatta became the latest State official to warn those intending to cheat in the exams of dire consequences.

“My administration has taken bold measures to make examinations credible and I commend those who work hard and long hours to achieve this,” he said.

This militaristic approach has however been critisised by education professionals for being a simplistic way to handle a national exam. “Even though as relevant agencies they may be justified to raise alarm and forestall possible cheating, one is left wondering if the information could be handled in a better way,” Kabianga University lecturer Dr Robert Wesonga questioned in his column in the Saturday Standard yesterday.

“In the wake of this, even where there is bound to be culpability; some schools and counties are likely to lay claim to the assertion that they were publicly victimised long before examinations even started,” he said. Form Four students are set to start their oral and practical tests for KCSE tomorrow while their written tests start in two weeks. The practical’s being tackled this week include French (oral and braille), German (oral), Arabic (oral), Kenyan Sign Language (practical signing skills), Music (practical) and Home Science (foods and nutrition).

Exam centres

Class Eight candidates will sit for their KCPE examinations on October 31. In total 1.06 million candidates will sit for KCPE on 27,161 centres while 664,586 Form Four students will sit for KCSE in some 10,078 centres.

Some 64,758 invigilators and 27,025 supervisors will be deployed to administer the examinations. The papers will be marked by 5,834 examiners.

As for KCSE, 36,622 invigilators and 10,183 supervisors will be deployed. The examinations will be marked by 23,713 examiners. Likewise a record 70,000 security personnel drawn from the National Police Service, Administration Police and Kenya Prisons Service will be deployed to man the exams.

This huge number is only 25,000 shy of the 95,000 officers who were deployed to provide security for the 2013 general elections.

As a result leave days have been cancelled in the three security bodies with Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i leading the way by clearing his diary for the whole examination month so that he can personally supervise. “Our resolve has not changed. Our focus is still the same and our commitment is even stronger; that we will deliver clean exams, that we will continue the legacy of honesty and integrity in the way we manage our education system in the country,” said Matiang’i as he issued sub-county commissioners with padlocks for locking 459 containers to be used to secure exam materials.

Laid out schemes

“This is a critical time. No one will be on leave from the Interior Ministry, leave is hereby suspended until November 30. We will all be on duty,” said Matiang’i. The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has already named six counties where it claims school principals had laid out schemes intended to help their students cheat in the exams.

Meru, Kiambu, West Pokot, Garissa, Wajir and Kisii have been mapped out as areas to watch by the national examiner. A further 30 centres have been placed under surveillance according to government on suspicion that they are planning to engage in cheating.

Politicians from Kisii led by Nyaribari Masaba MP Ezekiel Machogu have expressed their displeasure at KNEC for wrongly profiling Kisii among the cheating hotspots, saying it could psychologically affect the candidates, leading to mass failure. “Without any objective investigation, the reports amount to profiling innocent students, teachers, parents and the entire community,” said the MP in a protest letter sent to the Ministry of Education and KNEC. Machogu has promised to raise the matter in Parliament next week