January 2023 tests the credibility of the 8:4:4 system of education on the eve of its controversial phase-off. The doubts may be the final exit show for a system that has no respect for competence.
The integrity of the results of the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination is doubtful. The chaotic admissions of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education candidates to secondary schools have disoriented candidates, parents and guardians.
Stakeholders are questioning the rationale of selecting schools - first choice, second choice and third choice – when admissions largely ignore the preferences of candidates. Some top scorers have been admitted to secondary schools based on the ethnic hue of their names.
The KCSE results released on Friday show a dramatic rise in passing grades and a massive fall in failing marks. There is a sudden, and general, outbreak of cleverness in schools that long lost their initial success roadmaps.
The resurgence of 'A' and other direct university admission grades such as A-, B+, B, B-, and C+ raises doubts about the integrity of the 2022 exam. This is not the first time these doubts have been raised. This is also not the first time doubts have been raised about the integrity of transition examinations as a way of measuring academic ability or inability.
The year 2015 was particularly worrying for education critics. Keen observers are again questioning the credibility of the results of the 2022 KCSE.
Then Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi was accused of presiding over a porous system that aided leakage of examinations.
The fluidity of the examination system suddenly changed when Fred Matiang'i replaced Kaimenyi at Jogoo House. The integrity of the examination process was further tightened when Matiang'i, as CS for Education, teamed up with Prof George Magoha as the Kenya National Examination Council chairman.
The system stabilised when Magoha replaced Matiang'i at Jogoo House. The entry of a former district commissioner, Ezekiel Mochogu, as CS for Education, and the suspicion the 2022 KCSE exam may have been leaked, rekindle the Kaimenyi days in Jogoo House.
The suspicions send the wrong message: Examination candidates have been overrated and downgraded using faulty and sometimes compromised parameters. Candidates pass examinations when they work smart, after rigorous preparation for the tests. Not all schools possess the staffing capacity, passion, discipline and rigour of preparing their candidates for national examinations.
Candidates also fail when they are poorly prepared, lazy or distracted. But the impressionable minds also blind-pass when examinations papers are leaked.
Compromise of the integrity of the examinations process has been responsible for the sudden good performance of certain schools. But this also does not mean traditionally good schools don't gain illegal access to examination papers.
The mobile phone has increased the risk of digital theft of examinations. Can the case of so many scoring direct university admission grades point to the return of the era of leakage of examination papers?
Social media platforms are awash with allegations of a compromised examination system. The refutation of these claims does not explain the sudden outbreak of cleverness among KSCE candidates.
Sample these: "I'm one of the examiners... The situation is bad. The paper I marked had 90 per cent input of the teachers in cheating. The candidates accessed marking schemes that belong to Knec."
"I started marking in 2018. I have never witnessed what I saw in [last year's] exams. Answers in History Paper II were copy-pasted throughout the country. Many had the same wrong answers."
It's claimed powerful principals compromise examiners, and that Knec is often the conduit of leakages.
Some parents have reason to worry: some of the scores are above the ability of their children. The ministry should rest these fears to salvage the integrity of examinations.
