More than 900,000 students are expected to sit for Kenya Certificate of Secondary exams today with compulsory papers taking the lead.
Students all over the nation are expected to write the English paper (Functional skills) and chemistry paper within the stipulated time.
However, fear of lack of credibility in the exams looms as some people are expected to have accessed the exams and started selling them even as the CS assured to have protected then exams fully.
He had stated that all loopholes for exam leakage were blocked indicating that the suspects who would be found selling the papers
“My ministry will ensure that appropriate action will be taken against officers who contravene the rules and regulations. The government will not spare any person found to be cheating in examinations,” Machogu said last week.
“One of the key strategies to be implemented with effect from 2023 is collection of examination papers twice a day for the KCSE examinations. This will ensure that no candidate has access to the examination prior to the set time,” the education boss stated.
Sellers who have been found with papers on social media platforms are selling the papers between 3,000 shillings and 7,000 shillings depending on whether the buyer wants the papers accompanied with answers.
“Single paper is 3,000 shillings. So far, only two chemistry papers have been sent. It’s certain that they will be exact leakage. We will confirm before Monday night and we will announce the paper to focus on,” KNEC body announced.
Following various engagements, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) mapped all examination centres to the nearest distribution centres to avert delays at the start of the second exam session Last week the exam centers were realigned and the Cabinet Secretary of education.
In realigning examination centers within the same sub county, the cabinet Secretary said consideration was distance and terrain and was applicable only in sub counties which had more than one container installed.
The affected exam centers were aligned to containers that were easily accessible, considering the nature of the roads and the distance from the exam center and where exam containers were placed at.
“Alignment of examination centers to distribution points was not within their sub counties but within their county. In this category, the key considerations were security, terrain and distance,” the CS explained to the National assembly committee on education.
The realignment affected several counties that are prone to insecurity and poor roads especially times like these when heavy downpours are being experienced.
West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties are among the affected.
This comes amid heavy downpours experienced in the different parts of the nation and the lack of financial disbursement to support the issuance of the papers as Kathiani Member of Parliament, Robert Mbui claimed in an interview today.
“Unfortunately for the first time in Kenya, they are going to have major challenges in this particular exam because I raised it in parliament recently that when you introduce a plan that the centre managers will have to pick exams two times in a day and considering the situation we have now with heavy rains and the terrain because some of those centres are far from the institutions,” he said.
“There is a major increase in cost which has not even been met because some of our education officers are complaining that they don’t have enough money to fuel in fact they are borrowing fuel from petrol stations so that they can be able to manage the exams,” he added.