• Public outcry greeted the revelation that some KCPE candidates received scores for subjects they did not enrol for.
• In some instances, grades in the SMS were missing the quality signs of plus (+) or minus (-).
Image: FILE
The Kenya Human Rights Commission and Elimu Bora Working Group have moved to court seeking orders to stop the Kenya National Examination Council from conducting examinations until the 2023 KCPE and KCSE results are forensically audited.
In the suit filed on Tuesday, February 13, the plaintiffs argued that KCPE candidates received conflicting grades upon release of their 2023 results on November 23, 2023, but the council did nothing to rectify the anomalies despite having acknowledged the irregularities.
“Without accurate exam results, it became difficult to assess learners properly,” the petitioners state in their application.
“KNEC's mishandling of exams subjected the quality of Kenyan children's learning and assessment to global scrutiny and shame. It raised suspicions about learners' quality and diminished opportunities for them worldwide,” they said.
Knec has been sued alongside Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang and Attorney General Justin Muturi.t
They sought, from the examination council, among other information, disclosure of their policy and guidelines on marking, awarding marks, and the moderation process.
“Knec refused to respond,” they said.
In their argument to the court, the petitioners said that credible and quality examination results cannot be achieved in the future unless the 2023 anomalies are corrected.
As such, they want the court to order a forensic audit of the 2023 KCPE and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results within 90 days.
“Suppose the court compels Knec and Education CS to do the audit and fail. In that case, we want an order prohibiting them from "setting and conducting any KCSE examinations including issuing KCSE examinations results and certificates," the petitioners said.
Public outcry greeted the revelation that some KCPE candidates received scores for subjects they did not enrol for.
In some instances, grades in the SMS were missing the quality signs of plus (+) or minus (-).
For instance, some candidates who scored 73 marks had their mean grade indicated as B+ while others with the same score indicated B (plain).
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Education Committee to apprise Parliament of the concerns raised on the errors on December 7, Machogu clarified that errors were only with the transmission system using the shortcode.
“At the onset, I have to clarify that there were no such anomalies in the results that were sent by KNEC to schools and which were also available in the KNEC portal,” Machogu said.
“Anomalies of assigning different grades to identical marks were reported on the SMS platform messages. There were no such anomalies in the official results on the KNEC portal and in the printouts sent to schools.”
The CS said his ministry had reached out to the ICT ministry to help in auditing the transmission system to locate the cause of the anomaly.
The audit, he said, would be done within 14 days.
On Saturday, November 26, 2023, Knec CEO David Njengere acknowledged that 133 candidates were awarded the wrong marks in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam.
He further said some results received through the SMS code 40054 awarded candidates low marks in some of the subjects, mainly in English and Kiswahili.
The Knec boss further revealed that results for some candidates were misaligned and marks and grades in Kiswahili placed in the Kenyan Sign Language section.
He further said there were cases where grades in Science and Social Studies and Religious Education were truncated incorrectly and were missing the plus (+) and minus (-) signs as expected.
"The error affected only the SMS results due to configuration issues as the results in the KNEC portal are accurate," Njengere said.
"Candidates have been advised to visit their schools and collect the official provisional results slips and raise any query for review of their results, if any, within the stipulated 30 days period," he added.