Exam Cheaters Afraid As Ministry of Education Introduces These New Rules
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced five new rules to curb cheating in the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
Yesterday, Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha directed examination centre managers to follow the five rules in a press address that comes amid the reporting of examination cheating cases that have allegedly risen to more the 80 in the ongoing KCSE examinations.
Among the rules is the requirement for all examination centres’ gates to stay open until the examinations have been completed. This is to ensure easy monitoring or rather easy impromptu arrival from the authorities once they are informed of any possible cheating case.
CS Magoha also ordered police officers who are charged with the examination storage rooms to stay at their posts all the time. They are also required to be vigilant until candidates have received the final papers for the day.
“Security officers should stay at their positions where they will be able to see the examination materials for the second daily paper as the morning paper is ongoing,” read part of the statement.
CS Magoha also ordered supervisors and invigilators not to leave the examination rooms for any reason in the duration examinations are administered.
Teachers who will not be invigilating or supervising the examinations on a specific day will not be allowed to enter the school compound.
Teachers who are exempted from this rule are those who are involved in the preparation of practical examinations.
“Centre managers will not allow unauthorized teachers or staff to stay in the school compound during the examination period. Only teachers in charge of practical subjects will be allowed in the examination centres during the days that the subjects are done,” said CS Magoha.
Mobile phones are still not allowed in examination rooms except for the security officer and the centre managers. Their phones will be kept at the centre manager’s office and will only be used in case of an emergency.
CS Magoha denied leakage of the national examinations though he admitted to early examination exposure. He also revealed that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested suspected individuals suspected of examination malpractice.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) also caught up with an organized group of fraudsters including school heads, security agents, parents and college students in some parts of the country who had been colluding to give an unfair advantage to lazy students.
It has been revealed that the examination containers are opened hours before the scheduled time to allow for distribution of the examination papers to university and college students for the development of answers which are then later sold to students, teachers and even school heads.
A syndicate operating an Ecobank account has also been nabbed where candidates had been asked to make a payment of Kshs. 5,000 per paper or a discounted fee of Kshs. 20,000 for the whole examination.
On the other hand, cyber and digital forensics experts are analyzing all subscribers in WhatsApp and Telegram groups who are part of the Examination malpractice for legal action as documents and handwritings sleuths add to their efforts.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has provided the number 0800 722 203 as the number to call in case you want to report any examination malpractice.
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