The Ministry of Education is considering discontinuing the use of Short Message Service (SMS) for candidates to access the results of national examinations.

Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee on Thursday, December 7, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said the move follows errors witnessed in the recently released Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results that sparked protests from various quarters.

Machogu told the committee that the SMS service provider contracted by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) was to blame for the mess.

In the results announced on November 23, some candidates had a misalignment of the marks and grades as marks for the Kenya Sign Language subject were inaccurately assigned to candidates instead of the Kiswahili Language in which they were examined.

While acknowledging the errors, Machogu affirmed that the system hitch only affected results received via SMS, adding that the results on the KNEC portal were accurate.

“As a CS, I have learnt lessons because you can see as a ministry, everything was right. Somebody we can call an outsider was given the contract but did not conform and do to the required standard.

“Moving forward, when we release the KCSE examinations, we will not be able to make use of the same service provider,” he stated.

The CS further disclosed that the ministry was mulling the deployment of a website, where candidates would be able to access their results at no cost.

“I am already engaging ICT we see whether we can be able to develop a website that members of the public can be able to access free of charge. When we release our KCSE anytime soon,” Machogu told the MPs.

Currently, it costs Ksh25 to access national exam results via SMS.

Machogu on ‘hurried’ release of KCPE results

At the same time, Machogu refuted claims that the ministry rushed to release the 2023 KCPE exam results.

Machogu insisted that the ministry undertook due diligence in marking, verification and validation before releasing the exams.

He noted that the results transmitted through SMS were provisional and encouraged candidates, parents and guardians to obtain official results slips from their examination centres.

Yesterday, Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga claimed that tender wars by senior government officials were to blame for the KCPE results mess.

Raila alleged that the government this year cancelled an exam printing contract awarded to a United Kingdom-based firm in favour of a Mombasa Road-based company which bungled the exam process.

“We’ve established that early this year the government abruptly stopped this contract because the UK company refused to give kickbacks. Without following any legal process, the KK awarded the KCPE contract to a politically connected local company based in Mombasa Road in Nairobi,” he said.

“The government was advised that the local company could not print the exams and ensure its security, especially on short notice. Nobody would budge because there were kickbacks involved.”

The opposition chief claimed that the Mombasa Road-based firm was forced to outsource from a company based in India for the exam papers to be printed in a hurry to meet the deadlines.

“We are also aware that the UK firm declined to provide codes to the many layers of security that had been encrypted to safeguard the integrity of national exams. We believe this process is responsible for the disaster witnessed in the KCPE results,” Raila added.