Teachers allover the nation have been banned from using social media platforms in a plan to curb national exams teaching. Twitter X, Facebook, Whatsapp and Telegram will not be used until the exams are done.
This comes as preparations for the Monday exams are still on going.
The Teacher’s Service Commission Chief Executive Dr. Nancy Macharia warned of 33 social media sites that have been used over the years to distribute fake papers and defraud students.
“TSC will not hesitate to take stern disciplinary action against any teacher found to be capable of abetting examination malpractice,” Dr. Nancy said.
In a circular copied to county, regional and sub-county directors as well as the Kenya National Examination Council(KNEC), the government will flag the attached social media platforms disseminating fake examination material and the owners will be facing the law once caught.
The Examination body together with the Directorate of Criminal Investigation will be working together to make sure that no misconduct will be experienced.
The DCI deputy director, Mr Nicholas Kamwende said that those caught will be flagged down immediately .
“Our business is to ensure those who are trafficking social media messages are arrested and the law takes its course,” Kamwende said.
While speaking at a meeting at St George Primary, that saw the attendance of three Principal Secretaries, Raymond Omollo of Interior, Belio Kipsang of Basic Education and John Tanui of ICT, Lentoijoni Antonina who is the Teacher’s Service Commission staffing director, backed up the warnings by saying that the banning is only to ensure credibility in the examinations.
“Earlier this week, we sent a circular to all teachers and schools warning against being members of any social media forums perpetuating malpractice in the 2023 examination and assessments,”she said.
She further advised invigilators assigned to the different stations to avoid any malpractices that might arise during the exam period.
“I call upon all the supervisors, invigilators and centre managers to desist from examination malpractices and ensure that the examinations are conducted in accordance with the set rules and regulations in order to deliver a credible examination,” she added.
The communication authority department through its director, Christopher Wambua also issued directives concerning the same.
“We are monitoring our social media platforms on a 24-hour basis so as to ensure any forums that are meant to defraud Kenyans on the pretext that they are sharing sample examination papers will be brought down very fast,” he said.I
n addition to that, Ps Raymond Omolo also said that officers have been deployed to all exam centres that are prone to attacks to ensure safety to candidates. Emergency officers have also been placed to incase of heavy rainfalls.
