Do more to curb exam cheating
By Editorial.Team, October 11, 2023The report submitted to Parliament by the committee on Education raises important issues that ought to be addressed as the country prepares to administer national exams to over 3.5 million learners beginning next month.
Exams play a larger than life role in determining the future of young Kenyans and both schools and parents/guardians have placed high premium on their learners scoring the best marks possible. As a result, there has, over the years, emerged stiff competition for high grades that has exerted a heavy toll on all involved, from the candidates to their teachers and guardians.
This not need be the case especially given that the competition that borders on the unhealthy has created room for cheating. In turn, this has led to skewed allocation of university courses, such as medicine, with some of the beneficiaries of irregularities ending up taking slots meant for the deserving candidates.
But when they find they are not able to cope with the demand of such specialised courses, they drop out, thus denying Kenya the expertise it deserves to meet its human capital goals.
Stakeholders in education sector should, therefore, take time to study the committee’s recommendations and come up with a timetable detailing how these will be implemented to ensure credibility of national examinations.
The ball is particularly in the court of the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec), which ought to do everything in its power to ensure it resolves the logistical nightmares that make it possible for exam papers to be tampered with before the exams are administered.
Secondly, it should also consider how it deploys its officers, how and when it pays them so that the sins of omission or commission caused by its personnel can be addressed.
Favouritism in the distribution of invigilators, supervisors and markers and delays in paying those involved in the exam ecosystem are issues that must be addressed urgently and resolved beginning with the current examination cycle.
Whereas it is difficult to deal with the issues arising out of the misuse of technology, ways ought to be found, as recommended by various knowledgeable stakeholders, for increased vigilance that will insure the integrity of examinations.