MPs put the Council of Legal Education on the spot Thursday over the mass failure of students sitting the Bar examination at the Kenya School of Law.
The law mandates the CLE to administer the professional exams on behalf of the Kenya School of Law.
Results released on Wednesday by CLE for students who sat the exams in November showed that only 308 out of 1, 572 students passed.
Appearing before the National Assembly Public Investments Committee, CLE chief executive Jacob Gakeri was taken to task to explain the alarming failures.
He appeared before the committee chaired by Abdulswamad Nassir to respond to queries raised by Auditor General Edward Ouko for the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.
“When you finish marking exams, you must do moderation because it is abnormal to record such failures yet these students have passed exams in the universities?” Kilimili MP Chris Wamalwa asked.
Galeri defended the Council against claims it could be intentionally failing students to pocket millions of shillings paid by students to re-resit the exams.
The chief executive appeared to blame the law for setting a high pass mark. He explained that the law sets 50 per cent as the pass mark. To pass the exams, students must attain the threshold in all the units they registered for.
“In most cases, you find students failing one or two exams, but that student shall have failed because that is what the law says and the Council cannot change it,” Galeri told the MPs.
“So, we are as concerned as everybody else about the performance. We are not happy at all,” he said.
Law students have been recording mass failures in the bar exams in the last seven years. Students and legal professionals have raised concerns.
Bar examinations are compulsory for university law graduates seeking to be admitted as Advocates of the High Court.
Gakeri said that the maximum number of units a student can register for is nine, and one has to score at least 50 per cent in all the units to pass the exams.
“In November last year, I can state that performance in individual units improved. In fact, it is only two units whose average mark was less than 50 per cent. However, when aggregated, it becomes lower than 50 per cent,” he said.
On the moderation of the exams, Gakeri said that the Council relies on a team of professionals, including Supreme Court judges and top lawyers, to set, mark and moderate the exams.
“The council does not have the capacity to set and mark and moderate exams, so we hire professionals. Our setters, markers, moderators and quality assurance officers are all professionals in the field,” he said.
The CEO found himself in further trouble when he disclosed to the panel that those who set the exams do not mark them and that their marking schemes are also not used by the markers.
“We don’t disclose the marking sheet of the examiners to the markers. We hire a team of five professionals per unit who sit down and come up with their own answers,” he said.
Wamalwa suggested that this could be the disconnect that has caused mass failures of students sitting the exams at the law school.
He pledged to take the issue to the floor for investigation.
(Editd by V. Graham)
