• PS warns parents against being duped to pay for fake papers.
• Says parents should be punished for sabotaging the process, buying papers and showing children it's okay to cheat and take shortcuts.
Absentee and irresponsible parents are to blame for cheating during the national examinations and should be punished.
That's what Education PS Belio Kipsang told reporters on Wednesday in Taita Taveta.
He said many students lack moral support due to minimal or no parental involvement resulting in exam cheating. Parents who don't encourage study also cheat by trying to buy exam papers, he said.
We should now start punishing parents colluding with cartels to sabotage this process. How do we expect children to be good citizens in future when we have shown them shortcuts?Education PS Belio Kipsang
“Parental engagement is very important. We do not give time to our children and we expect the best out them. The little time that we give them is what we do by contributing money to compromise the process [by trying to buy exams]," Kipsang said on Wednesday.
He was presiding over the opening of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination container at Mwatate. The PS warned parents against being duped to contribute money to buy fake exam papers.
“We should now start punishing parents who are colluding with cartels to sabotage this process. How do we expect our children to be good citizens in future when we have shown them shortcuts?” he asked.
A multi-agency system has been employed to ensure high credibility of the national examination, Kipsang said.
He cautioned exam centre managers to keenly monitor all the candidates to avoid cases of impersonation in which one clever student takes the exam for another.
He added, “Let us not allow our career to be cut short by some of these criminal individuals who register themselves for examinations knowing they would want to do it in another way other than sitting for it.”
The PS, who also visited Kenyatta High School and Murray Girls Secondary School in Mwatate, said early pregnancies and school unrest at the Coast had declined significantly compared with last year.
Coast Regional Education Coordinator Hassan Duale said candidates with adequately prepared.
“The level of anxiety this year is quite low and I credit our teachers for a job well done. Let our children be children and sit for their exams. The exercise has gone on extremely well,” Duale said.
Edited by R.Wamochie