KAJIADO,Kenya, Mar, 15 – Day two of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination and the ministry of education alongside security agencies involved in safeguarding the integrity of the process say that security remains heightened following several incidents of alleged examination malpractices that marred the opening day.
Education Cabinet secretary Professor George Magoha now says center managers alongside security officers are under firm instructions that any attempts to ‘taint’ the examination process are dealt with forthwith with those found culpable arrested and arraigned.
Concerns have meanwhile been raised in certain parts of the country that candidates are entering examination rooms with huge amounts of money.
“While we are frisking our children before they go to the classrooms, let us ensure they are not holding large amounts of money. We were able to track some students who had unnecessary large amounts of money in their pockets for reasons best know to themselves,” said Magoha.
Students found with large amounts of money will be demanded to explain the origin of the cash before surrendering it to center managers.
“I am going to advise center managers, invigilators under the hawk eyes of our security agencies that they should frisk students very gently but any unreasonable amount of money found on them must be taken and kept in the center managers officer until after the examinations are complete and the student is going home,” he said.
Day one of the exams saw police confiscate several mobile phones in examination centers while three teachers were arrested for alleged malpractices. Several cases of exam impersonation were reported.
Magoha has further directed that all mobile phones belonging to either, invigilators, supervisors or even center managers are surrendered and held at the center manager’s office. Anyone seeking to use their devises will be required to do so at he the aforementioned office.
Police have meanwhile launched investigations against several teachers accused of using their mobile phones to either compromise the exam process or receive money from ‘agents’ outside the school compound.
“I have also asked police to watch the center managers who carry hundreds of thousands of shillings during the examination process…they should actually handcuff such teachers immediately because if you are going to superintend an examination there is no reason you should be having Sh200,000 or even Sh300,000 in cash that is supposed to subvert the purpose of the integrity of the examination,”
The ministry of education has meanwhile rubbished claims that exam packaged have contained inadequate number of exam papers. Magoha termed the incident as un heard of and impossible saying that no mistake could have occurred while accounting for every single examination pair.
“There is no way a packet can have several papers missing. It means there is some ‘hank-panky’ business and perhaps they have taken them somewhere else and they want to distribute them,” asserted Magoha.
According to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) a total of 831,015 candidates will be sitting for the KCSE 2021 Exams.
The examinations are being administered in 10, 413 examination centres.
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