The National Assembly Education Committee held its fourth meeting to probe cheating allegations in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations at Kenya Coast National Polytechnic (KCNP) in Mombasa County.
The chairman of the committee Julius Melly admitted that there were cases of exam cheating in the previous KCSE examination noting the public is blaming the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) for allegedly leaking the examination.
According to the Kenya News Agency (KNA) report, Melly said that the problem emanates from parents who want their children to do well in KCSE hence passing the pressure to the teachers. This pressure, he says, makes parents dig deep into their pockets to buy examination papers from the KNEC or pay the examination officers to condone cheating in the exam room.
“The cheating going on across is a collusion of all major players from parents who pay money in form of school ‘motivation’, the principal who buys the exam for the students to pass for him to get a promotion at the end, and the examination council officials who sell the examination,” said Melly.
Melly revealed that the committee is working on a long-term solution to end cheating in the national examinations. The committee is investigating the 2022 exam from the setting of the exams, transportation, and marking.
Melly assured members of the public that they will be tabling the report in the next two months. The findings will inform the next course of action in solving the deceitful exam cheating menace.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Mombasa County Executive Dan Aloo advocated for the abolishment of picking exams in the wee hours. He alleged that it’s the time that exams are opened and sent to candidates through social media channels.
Aloo added that examination police units should be introduced in the country to be operating independently from the Sub-County Police Commander. The unit will be answerable for all exam malpractices.
The KNUT executive also calls for the decentralization of the examination council to the Sub-County level for easy monitoring and evaluation.
On her part, KUPPET Mombasa Executive Secretary (ES) Lynette Kamadi said that there is an abnormal curve of KCSE results from the year 2021 to 2022 with some schools transiting 100% to universities that make them suspect of some exam malpractices.
She faulted the Teachers Service Commission for promoting teachers based on students’ performance, making the teachers buy the exam for their students to increase their retirement packages.
She added that TSC should address the issue of job promotion noting that it should not only be based on KCSE performance but also on value addition in other parameters like sports and other fields in students’ academic life.
SOURCE:KNA