5 September 2007
Nairobi — Cell phones could be banned from exam rooms as one measure to curb cheating, the Kenya National Examinations Council has said.
Once the rule is effected no one, including invigilators and supervisors, would be allowed to carry cell phones into examination rooms, said Mr Paul Wasanga, the council's chief executive officer.
However, the council is still in talks with the Ministry of Education over the matter.
Eradicate cheating
The move is one of several being considered to eradicate cheating in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
The council has also been considering banning candidates caught cheating in national examinations from writing any test for three years.
In the last five years, about 6,000 candidates have had their results cancelled over irregularities. And to discourage the trend this year, Mr Wasanga said: "Any candidate who commits an examination irregularity in any paper will have the results for the whole subject cancelled."
The official also released a timetable for this year's examinations which shows that KCSE exams will start on October 22 and end on November 16 while KCPE will start on November 15 and end two days later.
In secondary schools, English will be the first paper to be tested to be followed by mathematics. Music will be the last .
Practicals for students taking Home Science, French, German, Arabic and Music will start on October 11 and run up to October 18.
The nominal roll for both the KCSE and KCPE candidates was closed in July.
"We had put in place measures to enable parents confirm whether their children were registered," Mr Wasanga said.
He allayed fears that over 5,000 candidates in Mt Elgon District could be locked out due to clashes in the area, saying the Government had the machinery to ensure the exams run smoothly.
According to Mr Wasanga, 703,151 candidates will sit their KCSE exams compared to 661,000 last year while in KCPE the number shot up to 275,805 from 243,000 last year.
The examinations are the second under the curriculum that was tested for the first time last year.
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