- "Blacklisting of all the students found impersonating others to deter the practice in future."
- "KNEC should bring on board NIS officers to vet examiners before employing them."
Image: FILE
Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board CEO Nicholas Letting has proposed policy interventions to the Kenya National Examination Council on what ought to be done to curb cheating during national examinations.
Leting recommended that mobile networks be disabled in cheating-prone areas to reduce the leakage of examinations through mobile phones.
He also called for benchmarking with other examination bodies that have done well in examination management such as KASNEB and HRMPEB.
"Blacklisting of all the students found impersonating others to deter the practice in future," Leting said.
Further, Leting wants officers of the National Intelligence Service on board to operate covertly and sometimes pose as candidates to identify cases of examination irregularities and cheating.
"KNEC should bring on board NIS officers to vet examiners before employing them as this will ensure that only examiners with a high level of integrity are engaged in marking examinations," he added.
Leting also felt there is a need to automate examinations in the future by embracing computer-based examinations which also provide for marking in real-time.
His recommendations were part of a report submitted by the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education Chairman MP Julius Melly in parliament on Wednesday.
The committee on January 27 this year moved to investigate following outcries that the 2022 KCSE witnessed a lot of malpractices.
The committee found that exam malpractices in the 2022 KSCE included collusion to share answers, use of mobile phones in exam rooms, impersonation, smuggling of unauthorised written material, leakage, and plagiarism among other techniques.
Following their findings, the committee recommended that parliament review the current legal framework such as the penalties provided for examination offences to provide for stiffer penalties to ensure deterrence.
The committee also wants parliament to provide for new offences arising from malpractices relating to Information Communication and Technology and the use of social media platforms.
"Commencing the 2024/2025 examination cycle, the Teacher Service Commission (TSC) should include other parameters such as discipline, infrastructural development, co-curriculum activities, and teacher's personal development as part of the teachers' promotion requirement," the report read.
The committee also wants the National Assembly to increase funding to KNEC in the year 2024/2025 and subsequent years to adequately finance its activities and operations such as competitive and timely remuneration of examiners, transport of examination materials and personnel, provision of decent accommodation for the examiners at the marking centres.
They also seek that KNEC should receive additional funding from the government for the digitalization of the examination processes to ensure compliance with national examination administering guidelines.
The additional funding is also meant to increase personnel to ensure adequate monitoring, efficiency, and effectiveness during the examination management and administration.
"KNEC should conduct national examinations at different times of the year for effective and efficient management. In 2022, the council administered three national examinations (KPSEA, KCPE and KCSE) within one month straining the personnel," the report read.
This comes as the form four candidates are set to commence their 2023 KCSE exams at the end of the month.