The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer has announced that the Commission is will launch a transparent process of enrolment using biometrics and validation of teachers will also be done to curb irregularities in examinations.
The process will involve teachers enlisting their fingerprints, which will then allow forensic and intelligence-led investigations in cases where examination papers are tampered with, ad where mobile phones and other gadgets are used when committing examination malpractices.
“TSC takes automation a notch higher by launching biometric enrolment system to ease teachers identification and curb examination malpractices,” said TSC via their Facebook page.
The incorporation of biometric validation will come in handy in vindicating teachers who are innocent from blame for offenses they did not commit.
According to the Commission’s CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia, teachers would screenshot examination questions using their mobile phones.
“We are at the tail-end of finalizing our consultations with the office of the Data Commissioner on the rollout of the biometric capture of all teachers.
“In the future, all teachers joining the TSC will undergo the biometric enrolment before they enter our payroll.”
Several cases were reported to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) during the administration of the now released 2020 KCSE examination.
The reports were allegations that some teachers contracted as either supervisor, center managers, or invigilators were involved in unethical behavior of opening examination papers as soon as they were released.
The teachers would then disseminate them to candidates directly or to people hired to sit for the examinations on behalf of the students.
TSC are disappointed with these reports more so since it involves teachers.
In one of the incidences, a school principal screenshot the questions of a KCSE paper disseminated them, and even posted the questions on her WhatsApp profile.
A senior teacher’s cell phone containing screenshots of questions of a paper was recovered as the cell phone was in transit to a student who was sitting for KCSE at a hospital.
Despite these reports, Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha has said that after four years of closing every loophole of examination cheating, “the menace has been completely eradicated”.
“Since 2016, we have not recorded a single case of a leaked examination paper,” said CS Magoha.
CS Magoha attributed the success to the strong security systems involved in delivering examinations directly to the examination containers before distributing them to various centers.
“We recorded isolated cases where some people entrusted to safeguard the examination papers went ahead to open them in the morning of the actual date of examinations once they have been dispatched from the containers,” he added.
The CS spoke while at Mtihani house where he released the 2020 KCSE results.
Dr. Nancy Macharia appreciated teachers for their work in administering and marking the 2020 KCSE examination despite the presence of the novel coronavirus global pandemic.