• The ministry of education has banned the use of mobile phones in examination centres except by centre heads and security officer.
• Mobile phones have been cited as the most preferred tools in exam cheating.
Image: JAMES MJUNYA
Teachers who will be implicated in exam malpractices in the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams will face disciplinary action.
Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, said on Tuesday a number of teachers were involved in early exposure of question papers.
“For those teachers who are involved, of course when we get the full report from KNEC we shall take disciplinary action because we cannot allow errant teachers to taint the lives of our children,” Macharia said.
The CEO did not, however, specify the nature of punishment that waits the wayward teachers although some have previously been interdicted.
She spoke after supervising the distribution of KCSE examination papers at the Kisauni Deputy County Commissioner's office.
Macharia, however, denied claims that the examination was leaked. She said security officers acted swiftly and arrested the teachers who took pictures of examination papers after collection.
“These people have been apprehended and since then you haven’t heard of any early exposure. Security agencies came in very first and some people have been arraigned,” affirmed the CEO.
Speaking separately in Vihiga County, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha warned candidates against concealing and sneaking mobile phones into examination rooms.
He said save for an incident in Wajir where a candidate sneaked a cell phone into the exam room on Monday, no other incident of attempted exam cheating using mobile phones had been reported.
The CS, however, revealed that the ministry has uncovered a new trick that some schools have been using to cheat in exams.
“We know the tricks. Sometimes the crooked teachers register ghost candidates, so that when the exam comes it looks like the candidate is missing,” Magoha said.
He did not, however, explain how the registration of ghost candidates is a conduit in exam malpractice.
“For genuine cases of absentee candidates, we have gone even to homes and pleaded with the children to go back and do the exams.”
He added: “Anybody who dares to breach the red line that we have said, that person is arrested.”
Magoha said that the first teacher who was arrested for involvement in exam malpractice was released on Sh1 million cash bail on Monday.
“If I was the judge, I would not have released him because the exam is still ongoing.”
Magoha revealed that the marking of the KCPE examination has entered the penultimate stage and the results will be released soon after the president is briefed.