Kenya: Record Number to Take KCSE Examination

 
By Brian Moseti

A record one and a half million students will sit their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations this year.

This is the highest number of KCSE examination candidates recorded since the tests were first administered in 1989.

The Kenya National Examinations Council released information showing that 78,886 more candidates were registered this year compared to 2015.

The candidates begin the examinations with a Mathematics paper.

Other papers to be sat for during the week are English, Chemistry, Kiswahili, Home Science, Art and Design and Building Construction.

Last year, the results of 5,000 candidates were cancelled over malpractices.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has revised national examinations rules to curb cheating and other misdeeds.

According to the regulations, potential supervisors and invigilators must be vetted by the Teachers Service Commission to ensure they have no criminal record.

ASISTED BY SUPERVISORS

To stop teachers from helping candidates cheat, Dr Matiang'i directed that headteachers and principals be in charge of examination centres. They are to be assisted by supervisors.

The ministry also banned communication between candidates and any other people who might influence them by doing away with third term visits and prayer days.

Results for candidates found with mobile phones during the examination period would be cancelled.

Issuing the new guidelines in September, Knec acting chief executive Mercy Karogo said anyone caught cheating or facilitating exam offences could be imprisoned.

"Any person who gains access to examination materials and knowingly reveals the contents, whether orally or in writing, to an unauthorised party, whether a candidate or not, will be in violation of the Knec Act and the penalty will be imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or a fine not exceeding Sh2 million or both," she said.

Those impersonating candidates would be fined Sh2 million or risk a two-year jail term or both. If the phoney is a student, he or she would be barred from sitting any Knec examination for three years.