Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i presents a copy of the KCSE
examination report to President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Mombasa,
on December 29, 2016. Present were PS Belio Kipsang (left), Knec
chairman George Magoha, Teachers Service Commission boss Nancy Macharia
(third left) and Knec acting CEO Mercy Gathigia. PHOTO | PSCU
The Education ministry released the 2016 Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results a day earlier than
scheduled to beat corruption cartels that were extorting money from
headteachers under the pretext of grading their schools favourably, it
has emerged.
Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec)
chairman George Magoha revealed that they were forced to act fast and
release the results on Thursday after stumbling upon information that
the cartels were reaching out to selected principals asking them to part
with bribes so that their schools are awarded higher marks.
“Some
information was spreading asking for “soda” and we had to quickly go
and release the examination results,” said Prof Magoha in an interview
with NTV on Friday.
The message, seen by the Nation
and which was circulating on social media, reads: “Hello, we have
gotten 3 calls so far from Knec” a landline no 020 8004510 registered as
Jogoo.
The person is asking to send “soda” to the data
people at Knec so that as they input data, they change the situation in
favour of us,” the message goes on. “They say that this is happening to
many private schools,” it concludes.
On December 13,
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i had hinted the results would
be out by the end of the month but he later denied making such an
announcement, saying the earliest the results could come out was in
January.
Previously, Kenyans were used to having the results out by late February.
Sources
at the Education ministry revealed that the initial plan was to have
the results released on Friday but word spread that the exercise would
take place on Thursday afternoon.
Before officially
releasing the results, Dr Matiang’i presented the comprehensive report
to President Kenyatta at State House, Mombasa.
The
exercise was kept secret until 1 pm on Thursday when the Principal of
Shimo la Tewa School, Mr Joseph Mwadime, was informed about the decision
to use the institution as the venue for the function.
DID THINGS DIFFERENTLY
Prof
Magoha said the council decided to do things differently which included
setting new examinations using a small team of trusted ministry and
Knec officials.
“We decided to set a new examination,
which basically we set offline, and we set the exams using different
people. You would not get that examination anywhere online. We set it
offline because once it is online, you only need an expert to pick it
up. And whenever we wanted to carry it, we did it manually to where we
wanted to print the examination, we proof read it there and corrections
were done there,” he said.
Prof Magoha went on: “We
started from the point of not trusting anybody; we asked the managers
who were there to leave. This was followed by suitability interviews for
those who remained. We made the system to ensure no one was going to
see the examination until it is done, we put very secure features on the
exams.”
He added that the exams were set and put in
pallets which could not be interfered with and exams for the day were
checked and opened in the presence of schools heads.
The
team that set the examinations, he revealed, comprised a “few selected
(Knec) council members and chief executive officers plus one or two
teachers, and ‘it was that small team’.”
“Only two
people in the council knew of the examinations. We realised primary
examinations had been set two years in advance and some teachers were
teaching the examination in schools already,” he disclosed.
He
added that teachers who marked the exams completed the work a week
earlier than scheduled to enable Knec to cross-check the results.
GET EXAMS IN ADVANCE
“We
had loopholes at Knec and we established that originally, any staff
could access the system and change anybody’s marks. There are many
schools which used to get exams in advance and could zero graze around
the examination since candidates knew what was coming.
“There
were many fake exams that were being sold by principals who we knew,
and they were not able to access it this time round,” said Prof Magoha.
He
said this year’s examination was set from past exam papers over the
last 10 years, noting that the performance means students did not read
and were only being prepared for the examinations.
Prof Magoha regretted that a sizeable number could not answer questions which means that they were not taught.
“We
should not worry about the As craze, it’s a big industry. Whoever
glorifies the As is a devil that needs to be dealt with,” he said,
adding that some principals were collecting between Sh10,000 and
Sh16,000 to bribe examiners and others were being paid by parents for
producing As.
He went on: “Exam is only worth five per
cent of learning, the child needs to be all round. There are lawyers who
cannot speak English or argue. We should now start teaching our
children. Students in universities are under pressure due to examination
cheating.”
In the examination, only 141 candidates
scored straight As compared to last year’s 2,685. It is only 88,929
candidates who had the minimum university entry qualification of C plus
and above. This is 15.41 per cent compared to 32.23 per cent in 2015
with 169,492 candidates.
“I wish us to answer critical
questions: To what extent are our children learning in the right way? Do
they cover the syllabus adequately? What life-long skills are they
gaining over the course of their learning? Are we stressing on
assessments too much? These are indeed critical questions that we must
keep asking as we interpret the results we are releasing today,” said Dr
Matiang’i.
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