Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has warned that cartels have started strategising to distribute fake examination papers in the country.
Magoha said that the Ministry and the Kenya National Examination Council officials are privy to information that the cartels include a clique of rogue teachers.
He said there is an active cell of the examination cartels in Rongo, Kuria, Homa Bay and Kisii regions.
The CS spoke at Joy Town Special School in Thika when he conducted a pre-monitoring of the national exams and classroom observation of delivery of CBC on Friday.
Magoha said that the Ministry has already mapped out other hotspots where the cartel is operating from.
The CS said that it’s only 0.5 per cent of teachers in the country who engage in the criminal activity.
The Ministry and Knec have laid down proper strategies to tighten security during this year’s examinations, he said.
“This year we shall cover up to 2kms away from the school because some crooked teachers have found a way of creating their command centres outside,” he said.
The CS said some teachers wait for the examinations to be opened in the morning and then provide answers for their students.
“Those who try to do it are not usually intelligent. They end up misleading and failing students who’d have answered the questions correctly,” he said.
Magoha warned students and parents to desist from being tricked into buying fake examination papers saying that they will only be wasting their resources.
The CS said that the ministry will ensure that this year’s results will be better than last year’s.
Meanwhile, the CS said that the assessment of Grade 3 learners will be carried out until the end of this term despite claims it will only take a week.
“I don’t know whose creation it is that the assessment will start on Monday and end on Friday,” he said.
Magoha said that the assessment is only meant to establish whether the learners have exceeded, met or failed to meet the expectations to enable teachers identify areas to focus on for the benefit of the children.
“The teachers want to know what the learners have picked after the three years so that they can go to the next level,” he said.
He also noted that the exercise will not be expensive as the assessment materials can be downloaded and written on blackboards by the teachers assessing the children.
