There are concerns across the country that the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations have been commercialized, Parliamentary Committee on Education Chairperson Julius Melly has said.
Melly said their engagements as a House committee with the public, stakeholders, experts, parents, teachers, examiners and Kenyans, in general, had revealed that there were malpractices in the KCSE examinations of 2022.
“We have heard their presentations, they are candid in terms of the problems and issues that affected KCSE examinations that emanate all the way from Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to field officers, parents, various schools and all that transpired during the examinations,” Melly said.
He was speaking in Machakos County, the Lower Eastern region where the parliamentary education committee was doing a public inquiry on the alleged cheating in the KCSE examinations of 2022.
Melly addressed the press in Machakos County on Wednesday.
“A number of schools both public and private go to a great length to pay to access these exams beforehand,” Melly said.
The Tinderet MP said they had also noted that a number of institutions and the whole country attach a lot of premium on the KCSE certificate thereby contributing a lot to the issue of cheating in the examinations.
“This issue of the premium held by KCSE certificate is what promotes cheating in examinations,” Melly said.
He said other examinations such as TVET and KASNEB were not highly leaked as KCSE since their certification was not held in high esteem.
“The Form 4 certificate is a gateway to an individual’s life, university, good opportunities and employment. So, this committee is going to sit down and write a report, make sure that KNEC does necessary changes to ensure that KCSE examinations get to have the integrity that it deserves,” Melly said.
Melly said they were yet to establish the extent of the 202 KCSE examinations cheating since they were still traversing the country with the public engagements sessions.
He said they had so far noted that the multiagency teams that handled the examinations more so the security, had been hailed by the public as having done a good job.
“The exams aren’t stolen at the containers, they are well guarded. But, cheating starts way before exams reach the KNEC containers."
"That means a number of officers and KNEC handlers have been bribed more so, by the way the exams and marking schemes get leaked before time and the way some schools access exam papers,” Melly said.
Melly cited a case where a person claimed he saw some exam papers during the 2022 KCSE examinations period and reported it to relevant authorities but no action was taken.
He said they had also noted with lots of concerns that the officers who were mandated to take their work seriously, do them with lots of casualness.
“They don’t report instances of cheating even when the examiners have brought it to their attention,” Melly said.
The committee will be in Mombasa covering the Coastal region on Thursday before heading to Wajia for the same assignment in North Eastern Region on Friday.
