KNEC has been accused of selling examination papers and their marking schemes to parents, and school administrators.
The National Assembly Committee on Education has accused the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) of actively facilitating the leakage of examinations including last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
In its findings, the Committee blamed officials of the Council who work together with school administrators and parents to facilitate the sale of examination papers and their marking schemes.
The Committee’s Chairperson Julius Melly said that the perpetrators will be dealt with when the committee will table its findings in Parliament in the next two months.
“From confessions and talks by members of the public, that one thing that is quite true and cutting across is that there was cheating in the 2022 KCSE and the cheating in most of the examinations originated from KNEC, the council itself is actually the main source of cheating. It is alleged that the council is the one selling its examinations,” said Melly.
According to the Committee, cases of cheating were attributed to the pressure that is exerted on headteachers, by their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), to deliver good results for them to be promoted.
The Committee said that this forces teachers to use all means including engaging in examination cheating to please their employers.
“We want to investigate the extent to which the cheating went. The decision will be tough, we will make sure that this cheating stops. We are collecting views from the public so that we can know where examination cheating gaps are so that we can seal them. We are also here to find out if certain schools were awarded marks more than others in the just concluded KCSE examination.
We will summon KNEC officials to come to the committee and explain why they leaked papers. We will eliminate this problem once and for all,” added Melly.
Melly said that they will recommend measures those culpable will face.
The Committee also pledge to review the Council’s laws to remove any loopholes that facilitate cheating in examinations.
In the Committee’s engagement with the public, they were told that some schools pay as much as one million (Kes. 1,000,000) to get examination leakages in order to sustain their reputation as examination giants.
It was also revealed that some national and private schools were popular in buying examination papers from corrupt KNEC officials.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (KUPPET) Executive Secretary for the Mombasa branch Lynatte Khamadi claimed that some school principals worked with students who disappeared from school after registering for their Form Four examination only to reappear during examination periods to sneak in examination leakages.
“We have noted that some students deliberately commit offences so that they can be suspended, then they go out of their way to buy examination papers. These are the ones who sneak leakages to their fellow students. As school heads, we want to be helped because the law does not allow us to deregister candidates,” said Khamadi.
The MPs were told how marking schemes are leaked and generated to students before they sit for their examinations through a well-coordinated scheme and networks of people.
Examination setters also collude with school principals in some top public and private schools in leaking questions set in the final national examinations.