The Ministry of Education will take stern action against a private school from Kisumu County that transferred 26 of its candidates to another Sub-county to sit for the ongoing KCPE examination.
The Principal Secretary in the Ministry (PS), Dr. Belio Kipsang said on Tuesday that the Ministry was aware of the malpractice said to have been committed by St. Anne’s Academy based in Kisumu town, in a move calculated to improve the ranking of the school.
Although the Academy had 46 candidates, it only registered 20 of the pupils they considered bright in their school and registered the remaining 26 candidates in another school in Muhoroni Sub-County without the knowledge of their parents.
The PS, who asked the Kisumu County Director of Education, Isaac Atebe to attend to the issue, said they have calmed the angry parents to let the candidates sit the examination but warned that stern action would be taken against the school’s administration once the exams were over.
Speaking early this morning after supervising the opening of examinations container and later the opening of examination papers at Manyatta Primary school in Kisumu town, Dr. Kipsang assured all candidates sitting 2019’s National Examinations that the examination papers were intact.
He said that the Ministry was prepared to tackle any challenge to forestall leakage of the exams.
The PS assured that the examinations were being seen this morning for the first time and that the results to be released by end of this year would reflect the true capability of each candidate.
Dr. Kipsang said there has been little anxiety experienced by pupils ahead of the exams.
“We have witnessed little anxiety this year and wish to assure that the examination papers being opened are intact and are being seen for this first time,” he added.
The PS said the integrity of the examinations was key to the future generation and cautioned those involved in administering the exams to ensure the highest standards of honesty.
Dr. Kipsang assured the over one million candidates sitting this year’s KCPE examination of admission to secondary schools to ensure the commitment of the government to the 100% transition is attained.
He called on MPs to utilize funds from the National Government Constituency Development Fund to invest in storied buildings to cater for ballooning numbers of pupils in public schools.
Dr. Kipsang was accompanied by other senior Ministry of Education officials among them, the Nyanza Regional Coordinator of Education, Richard Chepkawai and security officials.
By George Kaiga
