Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has warned a section of schools heads, bent on trying to use all means to cheat in the ongoing KCSE examination not to think about it.
Magoha on Monday singled out a school in western Kenya where he said the principal is trying to use ‘experts’ to sit examinations for the candidates.
Without mentioning the name of the school, Magoha said they have some information that the school head has removed teachers from their servant quarters and brought in some experts who get papers which are smuggled from examination rooms, fill the answers and the papers taken back.
“The information is worrying and there are officers on the ground who are pursuing the matter. We will get the principal once the information is found to be true. The school is a popular one and usually performs well in national examinations,” Magoha noted when he supervised distribution of exam papers at Kenol in Murang’a.
He warned the officers manning administration of the KCSE exams, saying the government is keen to deliver examinations which reflect the true capabilities of the learners.
“Even in HomaBay County we are investigating allegations of irregularities where some examination officers are said to work in cahoots with teachers to try to assist candidates in answering question papers. The truth of the matter will be known soon,” Magoha added.
Magoha further said no officer who is manning the examination is supposed to have a phone at the centers.
He stated that in case of emergency, a phone will be provided for the centre manager to make a call.
“As stated earlier, no one should have a phone at the examination centre. Use of phones can assist in cheating of the ongoing examinations. So all involved officers should adhere to this directive,” Magoha said.
He reiterated that transportation of examination papers should be done by government vehicles or school buses but not personal cars.
“Government has many vehicles which can be used to deliver examination papers. We don’t want to hear of a case where a private car is used to transport the papers. Private schools can use their buses and every Centre manager must be accompanied by two police officers as security,” Magoha said.
He added that following the President’s directive on closing of learning institutions as a way to combat the spread of coronavirus, international schools are not spared and they should adhere to the directive.
“International schools which are not administering KCSE should close and let the learners go home. The President’s directive is to all learning institutions including private and public,” said Magoha.
On KCPE, the Cabinet Secretary said marking of examination papers is going on smoothly and observed that so far 35 per cent of the work has been done.
“This week, marking of Insha and Composition will commence and we expect the exercise to be completed as scheduled,” Magoha said.
By Bernard Munyao
