Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha yesterday revealed a plot by “exam cartels” to leak national examinations through social media platforms.

Magoha said the ministry was aware that the cartels working in cahoots with “a clique of rogue teachers and examination centre managers” had hatched a scheme to leak the examination papers during the opening of exam containers.

“It is regrettable that the cartels are very active on something called Telegram (a secure social media application). We are watching them as they plan to open the exam material and leak the contents during the opening of the containers,” the CS said in Mombasa.

To foil the scheme, Magoha said, the ministry was considering reviewing the time of opening exam containers from 6.00am to 6.30am to reduce the time centre managers stay with the papers.

“This time round, we are wondering whether we are allowing people too much time with examinations. We are consulting to decide whether we can reschedule the opening time from 6 o’clock to 6.30am to reduce the time the crooks stay with the papers,” he said.

Magoha said his Ministry and the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) had put in place strategies to tighten security during this year’s exams.

The CS advised students and parents not to fall prey to cartels by buying fake examination papers, saying they will only be wasting their resources.

“We are not going to allow anybody to mess with this exams and for those who think they are clever, we are watching them.

To the children, nobody should confuse them that they are going to give them papers because the papers we have seen circulating on Telegram are fake,” he said.

KCPE rehearsals

The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination centres will be served from 491 distribution containers while Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) centres will be served from 483 distribution centres.

All Deputy County Commissioners and Sub County Directors of Education are expected to  receive exam consignment in person and on time.

As it has been the practice before, the SCDEs and DCCs will be expected to open the containers at the designated time and distribute examinations materials.

Rehearsals for the KCPE examination will be conducted countrywide this morning in readiness for the tests next week.

KNEC registered a total of 1,225,507 candidates in 28,316 KCPE examination centres compared to 1,191,752 candidates in 28,467 centres in 2020.

On Monday, KCPE candidates will sit their Mathematics, English Language and Composition papers followed by Science, Kiswahili Lugha and Insha on Tuesday. The final paper, Social Studies and Religious Education will be taken on Wednesday.

On security, the CS said plans are underway to ensure that candidates in areas facing cases of insecurity like Baringo, Marsabit and Lamu are accommodated in hostels during the examination period.